Chapter 16

Presentation of the King Brings Release to Prisoners

1. What kind of application does Zechariah’s prophecy, when speaking of lands and cities in the news today, have now, and what helps us to determine a fulfillment today?

TODAY the countries of Syria and Lebanon and the Gaza Strip figure prominently in the news. Cities that are associated with these lands are named in the ninth chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy. However, what the prophet Zechariah said away back there in the sixth century before our Common Era has no application to these lands today in their relations with the Republic of Israel. Aside from any initial fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy in the first century of our Common Era, and in a literal way, the prophecy has its final fulfillment today, in this twentieth century C.E., in only a spiritual or figurative way. By acquainting ourselves with the first fulfillment nineteen centuries ago, we can discern its spiritual fulfillment today.

2. At a map of what period of time do we look, and are the places mentioned in connection with the “land of Hadrach” Jewish?

² If we turn to our map of the Land of Palestine during the Reign of the Persian Kings, we note Damascus, the capital of Syria, also the city of Hamath about 120 miles (193 kilometers) to the north of Damascus; also the ancient Phoenician (now Lebanese) cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean seacoast; also the Philistine cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod and Gath; also the cities of Jerusalem and Samaria. The “land of Hadrach” does not appear on all maps because its location and precise limits are not exactly known, but the prophecy associates this once mentioned land with Damascus. The Atlas of the Biblical World by Baly and Tushingham (copyrighted 1971), page 199, calls the “land of Hadrach” simply “a region in Syria near Damascus.” The Revised Edition (1956) of The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, page 124, speaks of the Land of Hadrach as a “district of Syria north of Hamath,” hence north of Damascus. Whether the expression “the land of Hadrach” is a symbolic one to mean the collective territory in which all the above-mentioned Syrian, Phoenician, Philistine cities are located matters little. They were all non-Israelite, non-Jewish.

3. How do the closing verses of Zechariah, chapter eight, stand in contrast with the opening verses of chapter nine?

³ The closing verses (Zec 8:20-23) of the eighth chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy tell of how people of all the languages of the nations and from many cities will go up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah, even taking hold of the skirt of a Jew to go along with him to worship his God. What happens to people who do not do so? Very nicely the opening eight verses of the succeeding chapter (nine) informs us of some of the consequences for not doing so. So let us now read that section, Zechariah 9:1-8:

4. According to Zechariah 9:1-8, who is it that takes a hand in the affairs of those mentioned, and in behalf of whom?

⁴ “A pronouncement: ‘The word of Jehovah is against the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is where it rests; for Jehovah has an eye on earthling man and on all the tribes of Israel. And Hamath itself will also border upon her; Tyre and Sidon, for she is very wise. And Tyre proceeded to build a rampart for herself, and to pile up silver like dust and gold like the mire of the streets. Look! Jehovah himself will dispossess her, and into the sea he will certainly strike down her military force; and in the fire she herself will be devoured. Ashkelon will see and get afraid; and as for Gaza, she will also feel very severe pains; Ekron also, because her looked-for hope will have to experience shame. And a king will certainly perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon herself will not be inhabited. And an illegitimate son will actually seat himself in Ashdod, and I shall certainly cut off the pride of the Philistine. And I will remove his bloodstained things from his mouth and his disgusting things from between his teeth, and he himself also will certainly be left remaining for our God; and he must become like a sheik in Judah, and Ekron like the Jebusite. And I will encamp as an outpost for my house, so that there will be no one passing through and no one returning; and there will no more pass through them a taskmaster, for now I have seen it with my eyes.’”

5. Why did Jehovah’s disfavor rest upon Damascus, the “land of Hadrach” and Hamath?

⁵ Ancient Syria of the sixth century B.C.E. worshiped false gods and kept up its enmity toward the restored land of Judah. It refused to worship Jehovah at his rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Good reason there was, then, for Jehovah’s word to be, not favorable, but against the “land of Hadrach” as a part of Syria. His unfavorable word would rest upon the capital of the whole country, namely, Damascus; and as the territory of Hamath bordered upon Damascus, Hamath would also have Jehovah’s unfavorable word pronounced against her. So all of Syria was under divine disfavor.

6. Why was Jehovah’s word against cities of Phoenicia?

⁶ The country of Phoenicia borders on Syria, and it too had turned against the land of Judah in its time of direst distress. Psalm 83:5-8 includes the Phoenician cities of Gebal and Tyre in the international conspiracy against Jehovah’s people, saying: “Against you they proceeded to conclude even a covenant, the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia together with the inhabitants of Tyre. Also, Assyria itself has become joined with them; they have become an arm to the sons of Lot [Moab and Ammon].” Tyre was really a colony of Sidon; and Zechariah 9:2-4 mentions them, saying:

7. With whom does Zechariah 9:2-4 link Tyre, and what is foretold to happen to Tyre?

⁷ “Tyre and Sidon, for she is very wise. And Tyre proceeded to build a rampart for herself, and to pile up silver like dust and gold like the mire of the streets. Look! Jehovah himself will dispossess her, and into the sea he will certainly strike down her military force; and in the fire she herself will be devoured.”

8. Which Tyre was the one mentioned by Zechariah, and why was this so?

⁸ From those words it is certain that the “word of Jehovah” was pronounced also against all of Phoenicia as represented by her world-famous cities of Tyre and Sidon. The city of Tyre here named is the island city, for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed the mainland city in his Palestinian campaign. (Ezekiel 29:17-20) The Tyrian survivors fled to their offshore island and built up a powerful city thereon. According to Ezekiel 28:1-19, Tyre had devilishly turned traitor toward its former friend, Israel, and Sidon became associated with Tyre in this course. (Ezekiel 28:20-26) Following the restoration of the land of Judah in 537 B.C.E. after seventy years of lying desolate, Tyre and Sidon did not change their heart attitude toward Jerusalem with her second temple. How unwise!

9. How did Tyre enrich and fortify herself, but how did Jehovah’s prophecy concerning her work out?

⁹ Tyre, as well as Sidon, continued to follow the wisdom of this world, increasing her wisdom for the amassing of wealth, piling up gold and silver here on earth where marauders can despoil. The mighty rampart that Tyre built for her protection as a seafaring, commercial power did not withstand the strategy of the Grecian conqueror, Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C.E. Her land-based military forces as well as those aboard her many ships failed her then. Jehovah, by means of his earthly instrument of execution, struck down Tyre’s military force into the sea, where she had established her stronghold. Jehovah dispossessed her by turning over her possessions of tremendous wealth to the conqueror. Her then being devoured in the fire brought about her complete ruin.

10. What interest did people from Tyre and Sidon display in Jesus Christ, and what was reported as established in Tyre?

¹⁰ Years later Tyre was rebuilt, but neither she nor Sidon regained the strong commercial position that she had held before the “word of Jehovah” pronounced against her was fulfilled. In the first century of our Common Era many individuals came from Tyre and Sidon to hear and observe Jesus and get cured by him. (Mark 3:7, 8; Luke 6:17; Matthew 15:21-29) According to Jesus’ own words in Matthew 11:20-22 and Luke 10:13, 14, there should have been many persons in Tyre and Sidon disposed to listen to and act upon the message of God’s kingdom. There was a Christian congregation in Tyre at the time of the third missionary tour of the apostle Paul. (Acts 21:2-7) These Tyrians were not trusting in military forces, nor storing up treasures on earth, but storing them up in heaven.

PRIDE OF THE PAGAN ENEMY CUT OFF

11, 12. (a) What intercity alliance anciently dominated Philistia? (b) Whose pride would Jehovah cut off, and how?

¹¹ What, now, is the “word of Jehovah” as pronounced against Philistia? Anciently, the five-city league of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza dominated the land of Philistia. For some reason Gath fails to be mentioned in Jehovah’s word here against the Philistines. Zechariah 9:5-7 continues the prophecy and says:

¹² “Ashkelon will see and get afraid; and as for Gaza, she will also feel very severe pains; Ekron also, because her looked-for hope will have to experience shame. And a king will certainly perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon herself will not be inhabited. And an illegitimate son will actually seat himself in Ashdod, and I shall certainly cut off the pride of the Philistine. And I will remove his bloodstained things from his mouth and his disgusting things from between his teeth, and he himself also will certainly be left remaining for our God; and he must become like a sheik in Judah, and Ekron like the Jebusite.”

13. (a) How was Tyre’s destruction in 332 B.C.E. to affect Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron? (b) What change was Ashdod to experience?

¹³ So the city of Ashkelon was to see the destruction of Tyre, and get afraid and then finally become uninhabited. As for Gaza, she felt very severe pains evidently for the same reason; and because of that painful event and its consequences, she experienced a change of rulership and her native king perished from her. The city of Ekron evidently looked to Tyre as her hope for protection and relief against an invading enemy. Hence, when Tyre was reduced to ruins after a seven-month siege by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E., Ekron also writhed with very severe pains, because her hope had been disappointed, shamed. But what about the fourth city mentioned, Ashdod? Apparently a change of population was to take place in her, for Jehovah said: “an illegitimate son will actually seat himself in Ashdod.” The legitimate native population was not to remain in it. Strangers, foreigners, were to take over the city, not only in the rulership but also in the population.

14. Of what attitude toward Israel had Philistia been guilty, and how would Jehovah cut this off?

¹⁴ Admittedly, then, the “word of Jehovah” was against Philistia. The Philistines had been very proud, arrogant, especially toward Jehovah’s people, even after the restoration of these to their homeland. However, their pride preceded their crash. By doing the above-stated things to the four leading cities of Philistia, Jehovah would “cut off the pride of the Philistine.” No Philistine could boast any longer when comparing himself with Jehovah’s people. Jehovah would also cut off their false religious worship.

15. (a) What will be done with the “bloodstained things” and the “disgusting things” of the Philistines? (b) What course will be taken by a remnant of the Philistines?

¹⁵ In their worship to their false gods, they ate sacrifices that were disgusting to Jehovah and to his people. Also, the animal victims from which they ate in their sacrificial meals were not drained of their blood. A halt was to be called to such loathsome worship of idolatrous gods, for the “word of Jehovah” went on to say: “And I will remove his [the Philistine’s] bloodstained things from his mouth and his disgusting things from between his teeth, and he himself also will certainly be left remaining for our God.” How such bloodstained and disgusting things will be removed from the mouth and teeth of the Philistine is not explained. But from among all those Philistines who will refuse to observe God’s commandment and break off from idolatry with its abominable sacrifices and rites, there will be left a remnant that will do so voluntarily, in obedience. That remnant will be “for our God,” for Jehovah of armies. What a lifesaving transformation this! But Zechariah 9:7 continues on further to say regarding this remnant: “And he must become like a sheik in Judah, and Ekron like the Jebusite.”

16. (a) How would the remnant of the Philistines become “like a sheik in Judah”? (b) Becoming “like the Jebusite” indicated what level of society for those of Ekron?

¹⁶ Of course, the Philistines in being Hamites could not become sheiks in the tribe of Judah, which was Shemite and Hebrew. (Genesis 10:6, 13, 14, 21-25) But the obedient remnant that were proselyted to the worship of “our God,” Jehovah, could become “like a sheik in Judah.” Thus the remnant would have a distinguished position in association with Jehovah’s chosen people and would not be considered as of little or no importance. Like a sheik of a clan, they would be given responsibilities. However, these responsibilities will be subservient to those of the Judeans themselves. This is indicated by the statement that Ekron will become “like the Jebusite.” Like the Philistines, the Jebusites were Hamites, not through Ham’s son Mizraim but through his son Canaan, and so were Canaanites. (Genesis 10:6, 15, 16) The Jebusites were early occupants of Jerusalem, which therefore used to be called Jebus.

17. Why in becoming “like the Jebusite” was a favored position indicated for those of Ekron?

¹⁷ In 1070 B.C.E. King David captured the city from the Jebusites and called it Jerusalem. (Judges 1:21; 2 Samuel 5:4-9) Later the subjugated Jebusites were used as slave labor by David’s son, King Solomon, in various public works of construction, including the magnificent temple at Jerusalem. (1 Kings 9:15-23; 2 Chronicles 8:1-10) What a privilege it was for those Jebusites to have a share in the building of Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem and also building fine facilities for the typical Messianic kingdom of God in ancient Israel! So, in becoming “like the Jebusite,” Ekron and its inhabitants who turned to the worship of “our God,” Jehovah, were brought into a favored position, though subservient.

18. What experience with Christianity did the Philistines have in the first century C.E.?

¹⁸ In the first century of our Common Era the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom was preached to the Philistines. We recall how the evangelizer Philip preached to an Ethiopian eunuch as they were riding in his chariot on the “road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza” in Philistia. After baptizing this Ethiopian convert to Christianity, Philip left him and was found up at Ashdod (Greek, Azotos; modern Isdud), around thirty-four miles north of Gaza. Doubtless many Philistines responded to Philip’s evangelizing. (Acts 8:26-40) After the conversion of the Italian centurion Cornelius in 36 C.E., Philistines could be converted, and then could receive the holy spirit of God through Christ.

19. How is the prophetic picture of ‘an illegitimate son actually seating himself in Ashdod’ fulfilled in the case of modern antitypical Philistines?

¹⁹ In our own modern twentieth century many religionists have been like the ancient Philistines in worshiping false gods and in fighting against Jehovah’s people. As ancient Ashdod, the chief city in the five-city confederation of the Philistines, underwent a change of population as if by illegitimate sons, so these antitypical Philistines of today have undergone a change of personality. By dedicating themselves to God through Jesus Christ and getting baptized in water, they cease to be a part of this Philistine world and become ‘strangers,’ unnatural, to it and out of place. They do not go after selfish commercialism as ancient Tyre did, nor do they depend upon it and hope in it in the way that Ekron looked to Tyre; nor do they trust in a military force, as ancient Syria did. They abstain from the worship and service of the bloodlusting gods of this modern world. They devotedly take their stand for “our God,” Jehovah of armies.

20. These transformed Philistines of today are given what share with the remnant of spiritual Israelites?

²⁰ In consideration of this course, these transformed modern Philistines are given a share with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites or Jews in promoting the worship of Jehovah at his spiritual temple. Just “like a sheik in Judah,” they are given assignments and responsibilities in connection with that temple activity. The crowd of these dedicated, baptized servants of Jehovah God has already grown “great,” and it is still increasing. This unnumbered “great crowd” who become associated with the spirit-anointed remnant was foretold in Revelation 7:9-17.

21, 22. (a) Of what benefit was it to his people for Jehovah to be an outpost for them, and why would no taskmaster pass through them? (b) How has Jehovah fulfilled this prophecy toward his remnant of spiritual Israel today?

²¹ Ancient Philistia, Phoenicia and Syria were violent enemies of the restored remnant of former Jewish exiles. To mark a contrast between his dealings with those enemies and his dealings with his chosen people, the house of Israel, Jehovah of armies continued on to say: “And I will encamp as an outpost for my house, so that there will be no one passing through and no one returning; and there will no more pass through them a taskmaster, for now I have seen it with my eyes.”​—Zechariah 9:8.

²² Encamping as an outpost, Jehovah of armies could prevent the attacking enemies from getting near His “house” and from invading them and then retiring. As an “outpost” he would prevent a slave-driving “taskmaster” from passing through their midst anymore and enslaving them. Similarly to this, the same Jehovah of armies has protected his “house” of spiritual Israelites in this “time of the end,” when the enemies have massed together as never before in opposition to Jehovah’s worship at his spiritual temple. Strengthened by his mighty spirit, Jehovah’s “house” of spiritual Israel successfully resist all efforts of worldly “taskmasters” to pass through their spiritual estate and become their religious taskmaster. In imitation of Christ’s apostles, they obey God as ruler rather than men.​—Acts 5:29.

23. (a) What does Jehovah’s expression, “Now I have seen it with my eyes,” mean as regards the situation of his people amid all mankind? (b) How is this true today with respect to the spiritual remnant and the “great crowd” of fellow worshipers?

²³ Jehovah of armies is aware of the threats and efforts of the enemies against his worshipers at his temple. As he says, “Now I have seen it with my eyes.” This corresponds with what he said earlier in his “pronouncement,” in these words: “The word of Jehovah is against the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is where it rests; for Jehovah has an eye on earthling man and on all the tribes of Israel.” (Zechariah 9:1) He has his observing eye not only on “all the tribes of Israel” but also on earthling man. That is to say, on all humankind aside from his chosen people. That is why he made his pronouncement against the traditional enemies like Syria, Phoenicia and Philistia who had abused the twelve tribes of Israel. This “pronouncement” is prophetic and has its spiritual application today to the enemies of Jehovah’s spiritual Israel and the “great crowd” of fellow worshipers. The difference between how Jehovah of armies treats all these worshipers of His and how he treats the modern-day counterparts of Syria, Phoenicia and Philistia can already be seen. The full difference will be observable during the approaching time of “great tribulation” when he frees his loyal worshipers completely of all their ungodly enemies.​—Matthew 24:21, 22; Revelation 7:14, 15; 19:11-21.

“LOOK! YOUR KING HIMSELF COMES”

24. (a) In view of Gaza’s experience, what questions are asked about the object of her hostility, Jerusalem? (b) Why will Jerusalem’s crying out differ from that of Gaza?

²⁴ A king was to perish from the Philistine city of Gaza, but what was to take place with regard to the object of Philistine hostility, Jerusalem, poetically called Zion? Is she, like Gaza, to “feel very severe pains” because of seeing the overthrow of the stronghold of greedy commercialism and untheocratic military force? Is she to cry out in extreme pain and terrifying fear? Cry out she will, but not in harmony with Gaza! For, after making his pronouncement against Syria, Phoenicia and Philistia, Jehovah proceeds to say: “Be very joyful, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph,a O daughter of Jerusalem. Look! Your king himself comes to you. He is righteous, yes, saved; humble, and riding upon an ass, even upon a full-grown animal the son of a she-ass. And I shall certainly cut off the war chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bow must be cut off. And he will actually speak peace to the nations; and his rulership will be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”​—Zechariah 9:9, 10.

25. Why has the “daughter of Jerusalem” every reason to shout in triumph and be very joyful at the approach of the king?

²⁵ At the fulfillment of that glorious promise, why would not Jerusalem have all good reason in the world to be very joyful and to “shout in triumph”? For at the time that this divine promise was given through the prophet Zechariah, Jerusalem was without a king of her own. She merely had a provincial governor whom the emperor of Persia, Darius I, had appointed, namely, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel of the royal family line of David. The kingdom of David had been overturned by the Babylonians about ninety years earlier, in 607 B.C.E., at the total destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of her king Zedekiah to Babylon. Although Jerusalem’s seventy years of lying utterly desolate had now passed, yet the Gentile Times of 2,520 years for the non-Jewish nations to trample upon Jerusalem’s right to a Davidic kingship had to continue on until the year 1914 C.E. So in Zechariah’s day the “daughter of Jerusalem” was longingly looking forward to the coming of the true Messiah King in the line of David, a Messiah prefigured by Governor Zerubbabel.​—Haggai 2:23.

26. Why do we not have to guess uncertainly as to the initial fulfillment of this prophecy of Zechariah?

²⁶ We today, who are interested in the true Messiah, not in a false Christ, do not have to guess uncertainly as to the initial fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. It is recorded and described for us by at least three eyewitnesses thereof, namely, Matthew Levi a tax collector, John Mark an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and John the son of Zebedee, besides a first-century historian who investigated the facts of the case, the physician Luke of Asia Minor. It occurred on Sunday, Nisan 9, 33 C.E. Matthew Levi tells us:

Well, when they got close to Jerusalem and arrived at Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent forth two disciples, saying to them: “Be on your way into the village that is within sight of you, and you will at once find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. And if someone says anything to you, you must say, ‘The Lord needs them.’ At that he will immediately send them forth.”

This actually took place that there might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Look! Your King is coming to you, mild-tempered, and mounted upon an ass, yes, upon a colt, the offspring of a beast of burden.’”

So the disciples got on their way and did just as Jesus ordered them. And they brought the ass and its colt, and they put upon these their outer garments, and he seated himself upon them. Most of the crowd spread their outer garments on the road, while others began cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. As for the crowds, those going ahead of him and those following kept crying out: “Save, we pray, the Son of David! Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah’s name! Save him, we pray, in the heights above!”

Now when he entered into Jerusalem, the whole city was set in commotion, saying: “Who is this?” The crowds kept telling: “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee!”

And Jesus entered into the temple and threw out all those selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. And he said to them: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a cave of robbers.” Also, blind and lame persons came up to him in the temple, and he cured them.

When the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things he did and the boys that were crying out in the temple and saying: “Save, we pray, the Son of David!” they became indignant and said to him: “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them: “Yes. Did you never read this, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have furnished praise’?”​—Matthew 21:1-16.

27. If the disciples had not cried out, how would the prophecy have been fulfilled?

²⁷ And the Jewish physician Luke adds this detail:

However, some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him: “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” But in reply he said: “I tell you, If these remained silent, the stones would cry out.”​—Luke 19:39, 40; see also Mark 11:1-18; John 12:12-19.

28. How, on his triumphal ride into Jerusalem, was Jesus peaceful, “humble,” “righteous,” and “saved”?

²⁸ Thus, instead of on a war-horse, Jesus Christ peacefully rode an ass into Jerusalem, unlike Herod the Great, who, after three months of besieging Jerusalem in the year 37 B.C.E., took Jerusalem by storm and dethroned Hasmonaean (Maccabean) king, Antigonus of the tribe of Levi. Jesus was indeed “humble,” as Zechariah 9:9 had foretold. He was no false Christ or false Messiah, but was “righteous,” the Messiah vindicated by his heavenly Father Jehovah. He was in fact “righteous” by being perfect in the flesh, sinless, unblemished, and therefore able to offer himself as a perfect human sacrifice for taking away the sin of the whole unrighteous world of mankind. (Acts 7:52; Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 2:1) He was indeed “saved,” just as his ancient ancestor King David was saved by being given the victory over his enemies. (2 Samuel 22:1-4; 8:6, 14) Not in vain did the great crowd cry out as Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem: “Hosanna to the Son of David,” or, “Save, we pray, the Son of David!” Seven days later Almighty God saved Jesus out of death by resurrecting him to immortal life in heaven.​—Hebrews 5:7-10.

29. (a) As regards his spiritual disciples, how did Jesus Christ “speak peace to the nations”? (b) How does he destroy all war equipment inside and outside of Christendom, and what will be the result of his speaking peace to the “great crowd” of today?

²⁹ He is the one who was to be called “Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, 7) The Jewish disciples of him came from all the tribes of Israel, including Ephraim and Judah, and he united them in peaceful Christian brotherhood; among his disciples he even broke down the enmity between those who were natural circumcised Jews and those who were Gentiles. (Ephesians 2:11-20) In this way he has already spoken “peace to the nations.” But Christendom has refused to listen to his speech and continues warring within herself to this day. In the oncoming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, Jehovah God will use his Messianic King to destroy war chariots and bows and all violent war equipment found today inside and outside of Christendom. (Revelation 16:14-16; 19:11-21) He will destroy all promoters of violent warfare among mankind, in all nations. But to the “great crowd” of peace-loving worshipers at Jehovah’s spiritual temple, who have come out of all nations, the victorious King Jesus Christ will speak peace and in peace, and they will be preserved.​—Revelation 7:14.

30. How, after the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E., was Jesus Christ formally presented to antitypical Jerusalem as King, but what question arises as to his reception?

³⁰ When in 1914 C.E. the 2,520 years of the Gentile Times ended for the Gentile nations to trample on Jerusalem’s right to a Messianic kingship in the royal line of David, the Most High God Jehovah installed the Messiah Jesus on the heavenly throne in order to reign and go subduing among his enemies. (Psalm 110:1-6; Acts 2:34-36; Hebrews 10:12, 13) During World War I (1914-1918 C.E.) the dedicated, baptized remnant of spiritual Israelites publicly proclaimed that the Gentile Times had ended and that the Most High God had made his Son Jesus Christ reigning King in the heavens. Thus Jehovah’s Messianic King was being presented especially to Christendom, which was prefigured by Jerusalem of the first century C.E. But did Christendom, who professed to be made up of disciples of Christ, receive him as King, whose “rulership” was to be “from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth”?

31. Down to December of 1918, what proves whether Christendom received Jehovah’s Messiah as her King?

³¹ Not according to what Christendom did to the anointed remnant of his spiritual “brothers,” which was the same as doing it to Jesus the Messiah himself. (Matthew 25:40, 45; Mark 9:37) Three and a half years after the end of the Gentile Times, war-embattled Christendom brought her persecution and suppression of the remnant of Christ’s spiritual brothers to a grand climax, in the spring of 1918 C.E. (Revelation 11:2-10) First after doing that did Christendom bring her first world war to an end, on November 11, 1918. In imitation of Jerusalem of the first century C.E. Christendom refused to receive Jehovah’s Messianic King. In the following month (December, 1918), Christendom went on public record as favoring the proposed League of Nations as being “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.”

32. In view of Christendom’s course, were there none to receive Jehovah’s Messianic King, and what would they have to do, according to prophecy?

³² Were there, however, none to receive the Messianic King whom Jehovah of armies presented? Yes, there were! Just as on Sunday, Nisan 9 of 33 C.E. there was a remnant of the Jews, namely, the disciples of Jesus Christ, that hailed him and welcomed him on his kingly ride into Jerusalem, so there was a remnant of spiritual Israelites that did likewise after the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. By the persecution and repressive measures of Gentile governments of Christendom, these were scattered and broken up, just as Jesus’ disciples were after his betrayal and arrest, on the fifth day after his triumphant ride into Jerusalem. But in the first postwar year of 1919 C.E. when they were revived by God’s life-giving spirit and reinstated actively in his service, they rejected the League of Nations, which was adopted and put into effect that year. Instead of accepting such a counterfeit Christ’s kingdom, they caught up the spirit of Zechariah 9:9 and became “very joyful” and began to “shout in triumph,” because their King, the true Messiah-Christ, had come to them.

33. (a) How, since 1919 C.E., have these receivers of the King let their joy be known and their shouting be heard? (b) When and how will the Messiah-Christ cease to ride the peaceful ass and on his ride whereto?

³³ They let their joy be known world wide. They let their shouting be heard world wide. How? By initiating in 1919 C.E. the greatest campaign for proclaiming God’s Messianic kingdom that the world of mankind has ever known. (Matthew 24:14; Revelation 14:6) They have let the proclamation of the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom be heard as far as Messiah’s “rulership” is foretold to extend: “from sea to sea and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:10; Psalm 72:8) Already 207 countries and island groups have heard, and this in 165 languages. In God’s unchangeable due time​—soon now—​all Christendom and all other elements of this worldly system of things must be cleared off all this territory in the fast-nearing “great tribulation” such as the world of mankind has never before known. In Revelation 19:11-21 the Messiah-Christ is pictured, no longer as riding on a peaceful ass, but on a white war-horse, charging into battle to clear off all opposers who have been squatting on his earthly domain since 1914 C.E.

THE TURNING OF PRISONERS TO THE STRONGHOLD

34. (a) Did Jesus the Messiah merely proclaim liberation for the prisoners? (b) Jehovah’s announcement to the “woman” in Zechariah 9:11, 12 raises what questions?

³⁴ Jesus the Messiah, when on earth as a perfect human being, was sent to “proclaim liberty to those taken captive.” (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:16-21) He not only proclaims this, but after his proclamation thereof he bestows it upon the captive ones. Jehovah’s pronouncement through Zechariah foretells this, as it goes on to say: “Also, you, O woman, by the blood of your covenant I will send your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of the hope.” (Zechariah 9:11, 12) Who is the one here addressed as a woman, who are the “prisoners” and what is the “stronghold”?

35. The “woman” here addressed is in a covenant the blood of which was shed on what occasion?

³⁵ The one addressed as if a woman is the organization that is in a covenant with Jehovah God by the precious blood of life. No, it is not earthly Jerusalem nor the earthly nation of natural circumcised Israel. True, the ancient nation of Israel was in a national covenant with Jehovah through the blood of the animal victims sacrificed by the mediator Moses at Mount Sinai in Arabia. (Exodus, chapter 24) According to that national compact validated with such animal blood, the remnant of Israelites had been released from their prison of exile in Babylon in 537 B.C.E. But what Jehovah was now speaking of through Zechariah was a liberation in the distant future, long after that release from Babylonian exile. It is a freeing from the waterless pit that follows the presentation of Jehovah’s Messianic King. It follows Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem five days before the Jewish Passover of 33 C.E. On that Passover Day sacrificial blood was shed.

36. Whose blood is here meant, and with whom is the covenant by blood made, and who is the one addressed as “woman” in Zechariah 9:11?

³⁶ Whose blood? Messiah’s blood, whose blood had been typified by the blood of all the Passover lambs sacrificed annually by the Jews since that first Passover down in Egypt in 1513 B.C.E. (1 Corinthians 5:7; John 1:29, 36; 1 Peter 1:18, 19) By virtue of Messiah’s blood, more precious than that of all the animal victims sacrificed by Israel, a new covenant was put into force. With whom? Not with earthly Jerusalem or with natural Israel, who rejected the Messianic King and brought about his death. But with spiritual Israel, circumcised in heart, Jewish in an inward sense. (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:7 to 9:15) The Mediator of this new covenant between Jehovah and spiritual Israel is the Messiah Jesus. So it is spiritual Israel that is addressed as a woman in a covenant by blood at Zechariah 9:11.

37, 38. (a) Who are the woman’s “prisoners,” and what is the waterless pit in this twentieth century? (b) What larger meaning might be given to the waterless pit, and what covenant does the blood put in force?

³⁷ Where, then, were those “prisoners” of this symbolic woman? Down here in this twentieth century and in this “conclusion of the system of things” these “prisoners” are the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites. The history of this century records that during World War I these did come into the bondage of religious Babylon the Great and her political and military patronizers. In that condition they were as in a “pit in which there is no water.” No spiritual refreshment therein, no hope of their getting out! But by the shed blood of Christ as a ransom sacrifice their sins in this condition were forgiven them and they were restored to Jehovah’s favor and to their rightful spiritual estate on earth, as no longer exiles from Him. But the waterless pit may also picture that larger unfavorable condition of being under the general condemnation of sin and under its penalty of death, as inherited from our sinful first human parents, Adam and Eve. It did really require Christ’s redemptive blood to get those who make up this spiritual remnant out of that condition. His blood was that which was applied to put the new covenant into effect. Jesus said:

³⁸ “This means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28) “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.”​—Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20.

39. Only hope from what source could those “prisoners” in the waterless pit entertain, and what call did Jehovah issue to them in 1919 C.E.?

³⁹ Thus by the application of the blood of the new covenant made with spiritual Israel Jehovah of armies sent forth the imprisoned remnant out of the waterless “pit” of the condemnation of sin and death. (Hebrews 12:24) Religious Babylon the Great did not offer these “prisoners” any hope; they could entertain “hope” only as they trusted in the loving promises of Jehovah God and his Messiah. To these in spiritual exile under Babylon the Great, Jehovah of armies issued the call in 1919 C.E.: “Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of the hope.”​—Zechariah 9:12.

40. (a) What did that divine call mean for the “prisoners” to do? (b) What is the “stronghold” to which the prisoners must return?

⁴⁰ That divine call meant for those “prisoners of the hope” to get out of Babylon the Great! (Revelation 18:1-4) The word “stronghold” reminds us of the words of 2 Samuel 5:7-9: “David proceeded to capture the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. . . . And David took up dwelling in the stronghold, and it came to be called the city of David.” But King David’s capital became enlarged to include more than Mount Zion, and it came to be called Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is the “stronghold,” not so much in itself as a strongly fortified city, but in what it represented. What did it represent? The Messianic kingdom of God, for its human king was anointed with holy oil to be ruler and this anointed ruler sat on “Jehovah’s throne.”​—2 Samuel 5:1-3; 1 Chronicles 29:23.

41. (a) This return of the “prisoners” was typified by what in 537 B.C.E.? (b) Why was it to the kingdom that the “prisoners” were able to return in 1919 C.E.?

⁴¹ In 537 B.C.E. the remnant of exiles in Babylon returned to the land of Judah and rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, thus returning to the earthly stronghold. Their course of action was typical of the course of the modern remnant of spiritual Israel. In obedience to Jehovah’s call, the anointed remnant got out of Babylon the Great in 1919 C.E. and returned to the spiritual “stronghold.” What could be a more impregnable stronghold than the unshakable Messianic kingdom of God? As the earthly stronghold of Jerusalem stood for Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom, likewise the spiritual stronghold pictures what ancient Jerusalem had the divine right to, namely, Jehovah’s kingdom of the true Messiah seated at the right hand of God in heaven. The Gentile Times for the nations to trample on that divine right to Kingdom ended in 1914 C.E., and immediately the Messianic kingdom was born in the heavens. (Revelation 12:1-9) So the anointed remnant, on being released in 1919 C.E., could “return” to that stronghold-like Kingdom, which they had been proclaiming since 1914 C.E. They showed that they did so by renewing their Kingdom preaching as never before.

42. What can the remnant of spiritual Israel say today as to fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise to the “woman”: “Today I am telling you, ‘I shall repay to you, O woman, a double portion’”?

⁴² There was excellent reason for the anointed remnant to “return to the stronghold,” for Jehovah of armies went on to say to spiritual Israel as to a woman: “Also, today I am telling you, ‘I shall repay to you, O woman, a double portion.’” (Zechariah 9:12) And has not Jehovah of armies done so? Yes. As the anointed remnant of liberated spiritual Israelites today look back, they are obliged to admit that what they had to endure during World War I at the hands of Babylon the Great and her world paramours was nothing in comparison with the spiritual blessings that they are enjoying now in their rightful spiritual estate. Especially so since the end of World War II! It has been more than they expected at the hands of their Liberator, Jehovah of armies. It has been like a “double portion.” What blessings they enjoy!

SPIRITUAL WAR AGAINST THE SEVENTH WORLD POWER

43. In Zechariah 9:13-15, how did Jehovah say he would use his people in a spiritual offensive warfare?

⁴³ Jehovah of armies foresaw the future assailants against his people, his worshipers. What action would he take? Both offensive and defensive. As to his offensive action, he said: “‘For I will tread as my bow Judah. The bow I will fill with Ephraim, and I will awaken your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and I will make you [that is to say, Zion] as the sword of a mighty man.’ And over them Jehovah himself will be seen, and his arrow will certainly go forth just like lightning. And on the horn the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will blow, and he will certainly go with the windstorms of the south. Jehovah of armies himself will defend them, and they will actually devour and subdue the slingstones. And they will certainly drink​—be boisterous—​as if there were wine; and they will actually become filled like the bowl, like the corners of the altar.”​—Zechariah 9:13-15.

44. The joy of God’s victorious people was to be as joy occasioned by what means, and so what coming world power did they not need to fear?

⁴⁴ In that figurative warfare, Jehovah’s worshipers are to be victorious, for they will be boisterous with joy, just as if their hearts had been made to rejoice with wine. (Psalm 104:15) So, in Zechariah’s day, the restored Israelites had nothing to fear from the ‘sons of Greece,’ when Alexander the Great led these to the position of world domination as the Fifth World Power. Babylon the destroyer of Jerusalem had now fallen as the Third World Power. Medo-Persia was then dominating the earth as the Fourth World Power. And in 332 B.C.E. Greece was to take her place as the Fifth World Power and to govern the land of Judah.

45. (a) With what indirect outgrowth of the Grecian World Power has the anointed remnant had to carry on spiritual warfare, and over what issue? (b) How have the ‘sons of Zion’ prevailed?

⁴⁵ However, according to Daniel 8:8-25, there was to be an outgrowth from the Grecian Empire into the Roman Empire as the Sixth World Power and then on into the symbolic ‘small horn,’ the Anglo-American dual world power as the Seventh World Power. With this reputedly Christian Seventh World Power the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel has had to contend, especially during World Wars I and II. It is a spiritual warfare that they have had to wage in an effort to keep neutral toward the controversies of the worldly political powers and to obey God as ruler rather than nationalistic men. (Acts 5:29-32) The spiritual ‘sons of Zion’ have prevailed by faith in God’s Word and by their faithfulness to Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. This has not been true of the Zionist Movement of the natural, circumcised Jews up till now.

46. How does Jehovah use his anointed remnant on earth like bow and arrow, how speedily does his arrow go, how does he blow his symbolic “horn,” and what does he use as the “sword of a mighty man”?

⁴⁶ When the Seventh World Power proposed and worked for the League of Nations in 1918-1919 as the “political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth,” Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom as established in the heavens in 1914 C.E. and as pictured by ancient Zion stood in opposition to the man-made counterfeit. Jehovah will use his kingdom as the “sword of a mighty man.” The “sons of the kingdom” (Zion’s spiritual sons) proclaim world wide the Kingdom message, which also is as a spiritual sword. (Matthew 13:38, 43; Ephesians 6:17) Like ancient Judah (the bow) and like Ephraim (the arrow), Jehovah uses the older surviving part of the anointed remnant to propel the newer part like an arrow in declaring the judgment message of the Sovereign Lord God against the enemies of the Messianic kingdom. Jehovah’s symbolic “arrow” speeds “just like lightning” to the Kingdom proclamation, the declaring of the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” (Isaiah 61:1, 2) Through the present-day explanations of his Holy Word the Bible, Jehovah sounds the spiritual “horn” to call his anointed remnant to the spiritual warfare.

47. (a) Especially since when has Jehovah been seen over his people, and in what respects has he defended them? (b) How have they subdued the figurative “slingstones,” and at what are they filled with joy as with wine?

⁴⁷ He himself is seen over them, for since 1931 C.E. they have specifically been called by his name, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Against the enemies of his Messianic kingdom he will go as “with the windstorms of the south,” which are notably violent in the Middle East. But his faithful remnant of spiritual Israelites he will defend, preserving their faith and spirituality and their God-given spiritual estate. The enemies hurl many stunning deterrents against the restored remnant, but such symbolic “slingstones” the remnant show a capacity to receive without being stunned out of action and they really subdue such “slingstones,” nullifying their effect. Just as the temple bowls were filled with the blood of animal victims and splashed against the side of the copper altar of sacrifice, drenching its corners, so Jehovah’s pouring out of the lifeblood of his enemies in destruction will fill the defended remnant with joy, as if the blood of the enemies were wine that was lawful to drink, to make their hearts rejoice.

48. With what kind of tenderness did Jehovah promise to treat his dedicated people, and like what kind of stones have they glittered?

⁴⁸ Instead of being like an assailing warrior against his remnant of spiritual Israelites, Jehovah will be tender toward them like a peaceful shepherd. So he brings his “pronouncement” to a high point, saying: “And Jehovah their God will certainly save them in that day like the flock of his people; for they will be as the stones of a diadem glittering over his soil. For O how great his goodness is, and how great his handsomeness is! Grain is what will make the young men thrive, and new wine the virgins.”​—Zechariah 9:16, 17.

49, 50. (a) Since when did Jehovah honor those honoring his name? (b) How does Jehovah act as a Savior of his flock, and how precious are these to Him?

⁴⁹ In the days of Zechariah, that was a heart-strengthening prophecy. Today, this late in the “time of the end” of the Seventh World Power and all the rest of this militarized system of things, the prophecy has become an experience that now nears a grand climax.

⁵⁰ Since the publication of the leading article, “Who Will Honor Jehovah?” in the January 1, 1926, issue of The Watch Tower, Jehovah has outstandingly been declared world wide to be the God of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites. Just as He had long ago said by a prophetic “man of God,” “Those honoring me I shall honor,” he did honor that Jehovah-honoring remnant. (1 Samuel 2:30) He saved them through the persecutions and perils of the worst war of all human history, World War II (1939-1945 C.E.), because these honorable spiritual Israelites were dear to him, just as a flock of sheep is to its Middle Eastern shepherd. How precious the stones of a royal diadem are to its wearer, whose appearance is made awesome by their glitter! Just as precious as those glittering stones in a royal headdress are the faithful ones of the spiritual “flock of his people.” He will yet save them from the enemy’s final assault.

51. How has the mental picture of Jehovah become to the remnant, and as with what provisions has he caused them to thrive spiritually?

⁵¹ How great Jehovah’s goodness to them has proved to be! How handsome their mental picture of Him has become to them! As with abundant harvests of grain he has fed them with spiritual food from his revealed Holy Word. As with new wine, their hearts have been gladdened. All this has caused them to thrive spiritually.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 17

Unification in Spite of False Predictions

1. Bringing back scattered peoples to their own land to the capacity of its territory suggests what problems in these days of population explosion and impending world famine?

IN THESE days ominous warnings are being sounded of overpopulating the earth​—population explosion!​—and of world famine as early as the year 1975 C.E. It seems strange, therefore, to be speaking predictively of young men and virgin girls thriving on the grain of the field and the luxury wine of the vineyards. Yes, and of bringing in more population to the point of having no more room for more. For the rapidly multiplying populations of some nations it seems that more room has to be found at the expense of territory outside the national borders, taken from neighboring lands. More food has to be grown; more land has to be put to raising crops. Why, then, regather the scattered people of a nation within their national borders, to the utmost capacity of the territory? How can its food problem be solved?

2. In contrast with human governments, for whom is there no food problem, according to Psalm 104:13-16?

² Food problem? For human governments, yes! But for the Planter of mankind’s paradise, No! No such problem exists even today for Him of whom it was written under inspiration more than twenty-three centuries before the present world situation: “He is watering the mountains from his upper chambers. With the fruitage of your works the earth is satisfied. He is making green grass sprout for the beasts, and vegetation for the service of mankind, to cause food to go forth from the earth, and wine that makes the heart of mortal man rejoice, to make the face shine with oil, and bread that sustains the very heart of mortal man. The trees of Jehovah are satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.”​—Psalm 104:13-16.

3. In what direction does Zechariah 10:1, 2 turn us to look for relief?

³ Let self-reliant men make what predictions they dare to make about solving the world problem by combined human efforts, there is only the one direction in which to look for relief. In that direction the pronouncement that comes from a source superior to that of man and devils and that is written down in Zechariah 10:1, 2 points all of us, saying: “Make your request of Jehovah for rain in the time of the spring rain, even of Jehovah who is making the storm clouds, and who gives a downpour of rain to them, to each one vegetation in the field. For the teraphim themselves have spoken what is uncanny; and the practicers of divination, for their part, have visioned falsehood, and valueless dreams are what they keep speaking, and in vain they try to comfort. That is why they will certainly depart like a flock; they will become afflicted, because there is no shepherd.”

4. How was the Creator’s ability to give rain at a specified time demonstrated in Noah’s day and in Elijah’s day?

⁴ The ability of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, the Creator, to give rain on a world scale was demonstrated in the year 2370 B.C.E., when, at the close of a week during which Noah and his family were told to get the animal and bird specimens into the mammoth ark (chest), it began to rain earth wide for forty days, this flooding the whole face of the earth for a year. (Genesis, chapters 6-8) Another occasion that he brought rain at a specific time, and this in answer to prayer, was when, at the end of three and a half years of drought over the land of the Ten Tribe Kingdom of Israel, the prophet Elijah prayed. The start of this answer to the prayer of a righteous man was a “small cloud like a man’s palm ascending out of the [Mediterranean] sea,” after which “the heavens themselves darkened up with clouds and wind and a great downpour began to occur.”​—1 Kings 18:43-45; James 5:16-18; Luke 4:25, 26.

5. What experience during the neglect of temple building proved to the restored Jews that “pouring rains of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26) were not to be taken for granted?

⁵ To the faithful remnant restored to the land of Judah it was promised that Jehovah would give them an excellent ecology or environmental conditions. He said: “I will make them and the surroundings of my hill a blessing, and I will cause the pouring rain to descend in its time. Pouring rains of blessing there will prove to be.” (Ezekiel 34:26) However, the remnant was not to take this for granted. During the years that they neglected the rebuilding of God’s temple at Jerusalem, they experienced scorching heat over the land, and “the heavens kept back their dew, and the earth itself kept back its yield. And I [Jehovah] kept calling for dryness upon the earth, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon what the ground would bring forth, and upon earthling man, and upon domestic animal, and upon all the toil of the hands.” (Haggai 1:10, 11; 2:16, 17; Zechariah 8:10-12) Then they found it necessary to pray to the One “who is making the storm clouds, and who gives a downpour of rain.”​—Zechariah 10:1.

6. Are the false gods of pagan, superstitious people rainmakers, and what statement about rainmaking will ecologists yet find to be true?

⁶ To the faithful remnant who directed their prayers to Him, along with obedience to his commandments, he gave “to each one vegetation in the field.” Each faithful individual’s plot of ground was blessed with needed vegetation for food. The false gods of pagan, superstitious people are not the ones to whom to look and pray. In an address to the heavenly Rainmaker, the earlier prophet Jeremiah said: “Do there exist among the vain idols of the nations any that can pour down rain, or can even the heavens themselves give copious showers? Are you not the One, O Jehovah our God? And we hope in you, for you yourself have done all these things.” (Jeremiah 14:22) All of today’s ecologists or environmental experts, who do not take Jehovah God into consideration, will yet find the inspired Bible statement about Jehovah’s rainmaking true.

7. Why does the anointed remnant not pray for literal rain to avert world famine, and what do they know to be more important for survival?

⁷ At the present time the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, who are giving their attention foremost to reestablishing the pure worship of Jehovah at his spiritual temple, are not praying for literal rain upon the earth in the hope of preventing world famine. They remember that Jesus Christ predicted that during this “conclusion of the system of things,” “famines,” “food shortages,” would add to the sufferings of the worldly nations and peoples. (Matthew 24:7, AV; NW) They know that more important for surviving the coming great world “tribulation” and gaining life in God’s new system of things are the spiritual blessings​—an increasing understanding of the Holy Bible and its prophecies, favorable relationship with God, more of his holy spirit or active force, regular meetings with his dedicated people, a share in the preaching of the good news of his Messianic kingdom, divine guidance and protection in all our endeavors to do His will. For a downpour of such blessings the God-fearing remnant have prayed. Hence their spiritual estate has yielded much “vegetation.” It has become a spiritual Paradise.​—2 Corinthians 12:4.

8. To what as gods has Christendom looked for her blessings, but with what foretold result?

⁸ Contrary to her “form of godly devotion,” Christendom looks for her blessings to the false gods of this world, commercialism, militarism, evolutionistic schooling, patriotism, modern science and technology, and the United Nations. Her political leaders even consult astrologers and spirit mediums. What have we noticed to be the results? Exactly what Zechariah 10:2 foretold: “For the teraphim themselves have spoken what is uncanny; and the practicers of divination, for their part, have visioned falsehood, and valueless dreams are what they keep speaking, and in vain they try to comfort. That is why they will certainly depart like a flock; they will become afflicted, because there is no shepherd.”

9. How have the people of Christendom been guilty of using “teraphim” and “divination”?

⁹ In their independence of the Holy Bible, the peoples of Christendom look to their “teraphim,” that is, their household gods, their Pe·naʹtes, as the superstitious ancient Romans did. They trust to their own private opinions, each one having his own brand of personal religion. They look to the predictions of the military, economic and political specialists; also, to the priests and clergymen who pray heaven’s blessing upon such worldly leaders and spokesmen. They rebel against the Word of God that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have proclaimed to them, and they push ahead presumptuously with their own ideas of how to do things. To them the words of the prophet Samuel apply, when speaking to disobedient King Saul of Israel: “Rebelliousness is the same as the sin of divination, and pushing ahead presumptuously the same as using uncanny power and teraphim.”​—1 Samuel 15:23.

10. Have Christendom’s predictors proved true, has relief come and has the flock been kept together under a shepherd?

¹⁰ From Jehovah’s standpoint, not just the so-called pagan world, but even Christendom is involved with idolatrous teraphim and uncanny power and demonistic divination. The private opinions of men have therefore proved to be in error. The predictions made by public figures regarding an improvement of world conditions by all the man-made means that have been put to use have proved to be merely fond dreams, falsehoods. How has this affected the deceived, misled people? They are certainly departing like a flock of sheep, each one going his own way, like sheep not knowing where to go. They have gone astray and are the prey for the vicious elements of human society. They have consequently come into great affliction, with no remedy available from human sources. No political ruler, no political organization, is able to shepherd them, to protect them and guide them to peaceful pastures or quiet waters.

11, 12. (a) How have the rulers of Christendom not followed the example of King David the psalmist? (b) According to Zechariah 10:3-7, is Jehovah pleased with the political “shepherds” who are guided by the religious clergy?

¹¹ The political rulers, even of professedly Christian Christendom, have refused to follow the example of King David, who shepherded the flock of the nation of Israel in 1077-1037 B.C.E. In Psalm 23:1, 2 the former shepherd-boy David said: “Jehovah is my Shepherd. I shall lack nothing. In grassy pastures he makes me lie down; by well-watered resting-places he conducts me.” Could the Supreme Shepherd Jehovah be pleased with the conduct of the political rulers who as shepherds of their peoples are guided and supported by the religious clergy of Christendom? Not according to Zechariah 10:3-7:

¹² “Against the shepherds my anger has grown hot, and against the goatlike leaders I shall hold an accounting; for Jehovah of armies has turned his attention to his drove, the house of Judah, and has made them like his horse of dignity in the battle. Out of him [Judah] is the keyman, out of him is the supporting ruler, out of him is the battle bow; out of him goes forth every taskmaster, all together. And they must become like mighty men stamping down in the mire of the streets in the battle. And they must get engaged in battle, for Jehovah is with them; and the riders of horses will have to experience shame. And I will make the house of Judah superior, and the house of Joseph I shall save. And I will give them a dwelling, for I will show them mercy; and they must become like those whom I had not cast off; for I am Jehovah their God, and I shall answer them. And those of Ephraim must become just like a mighty man, and their heart must rejoice as though from wine. And their own sons will see and certainly rejoice; their heart will be joyful in Jehovah.”

13. The clergy have left the political “shepherds” and the “goatlike leaders” in ignorance of whose attitude toward them, and how so?

¹³ Even in Christendom the political “shepherds” do not appreciate that Jehovah’s anger has grown hot against them. Do not the religious clergy pray for them and call down heaven’s blessing upon them? Likewise, Christendom’s headstrong “goatlike leaders” do not believe and fear that Jehovah of armies will hold an accounting with them. Do they not go to Christendom’s churches and so will not the priests and preachers act as mediators for them with God and straighten out matters for them with God? So they do not expect to feel the heat of Jehovah’s hot anger in the foretold “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” They show no concern about his holding an accounting with them at Har–Magedon, the battlefield of that “war.” However, although their own religious clergy have left these political “shepherds” and “goatlike leaders” in ignorance and self-complacency, Jehovah of armies certainly has not done so. He has served notice upon them, doing this well in advance and repeatedly. By what means?

14. By means of whom has Jehovah served such notice well in advance, and how has he transformed these from being like sheep into being like a majestic war-horse?

¹⁴ By means of his anointed Christian witnesses, the antitypical “house of Judah.” These have not followed the misleading political “shepherds” and “goatlike leaders” of Christendom. Jehovah is their Shepherd, and since 1919 C.E. He has turned his favorable attention toward them as his “drove” of sheep. During World War I they were indeed like sheep, not taking part in military combat along with Christendom, but were subjected to the beastlike political, military exploiters of mankind who had the approval and backing of the religious clergy. But since that first world conflict the great Heavenly Shepherd has regathered his “drove,” the spiritual “house of Judah.” From being like sheep, He has transformed them to be like “his horse of dignity in the battle.” He has imparted to them by means of his Word and holy spirit a courage like that of a majestic battle horse.​—Zechariah 10:3.

15. Why ought this transformation to be so with the spiritual “house of Judah” since 1914 C.E.?

¹⁵ This ought to be so. For, at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E., Jehovah God enthroned in the heavens the “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah” and commanded him: “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” (Revelation 5:5; Genesis 49:9, 10; Psalm 110:1, 2) As is the Leader of the spiritual “house of Judah,” so the other members of the “house” should be. Respecting this “house of Judah” Jehovah goes on to say: “Out of him is the keyman, out of him is the supporting ruler [literally, peg], out of him is the battle bow; out of him goes forth every taskmaster, all together.”​—Zechariah 10:4.

16. (a) Who was the “keyman” in Zechariah’s day, but who is such in our day? (b) How is he the “supporting ruler,” the battle “bow” and the “taskmaster”?

¹⁶ In Zechariah’s day Governor Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel of the tribe of Judah was the “keyman.” In our day, since the birth of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom in 1914 C.E., the glorified Jesus Christ who descended from David of the house of Judah is the “keyman.” Things are centered in him; responsibilities of royal weight converge upon him. Like a “peg” from which the royal interests hang and draw their support, the Messianic King is the “supporting ruler.” In the almighty hand of his God, Jehovah of armies, he is the “battle bow,” to wound and strike down the enemies from far off. He is the Chief Taskmaster, who assigns the royal tasks to all the members of the “house of Judah,” some of whom he appoints as under-taskmasters, and all of whom must work together with him as their Chief and Leader. With him at their head, all the “house of Judah” has reason to be courageous.

17. Why do the times call for courage on the part of the spiritual “house of Judah,” as in warfare?

¹⁷ The times call for Christlike courage. We dare not let the world situation smite us with a paralysis of fear. We have plainly been forewarned that this would be a time of warfare against the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, inasmuch as Satan the Devil and his demon angels have been cast out of heaven by the Messianic kingdom, and concerning this dragon-like adversary it stands written for us to read today: “And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman [God’s heavenly organization], and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17) So, with the help of their God, the remnant of the spiritual “house of Judah” have had fulfilled in them the divine promise: “And they must become like mighty men stamping down in the mire of the streets in the battle. And they must get engaged in battle, for Jehovah is with them; and the riders of horses will have to experience shame.”​—Zechariah 10:5.

18. (a) Why did the spiritual “house of Judah” have to get engaged in the battle, and with whom on their side? (b) Because of what have the “riders of horses” had to experience shame?

¹⁸ The picture here is of victorious warriors who have invaded the enemy stronghold, the streets of which run red with the blood of the slain defenders. So the invaders must stamp down in the mire formed from blood mingled with dust. But for the anointed remnant of the spiritual “house of Judah” the warfare today is spiritual, with weapons that are “powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things.” (2 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 6:14-18) In this “wicked day,” when the dragon Satan the Devil and his demons have been cast down to this earth, the anointed remnant could not escape being involved in battle. They have courageously undertaken it, “for Jehovah is with them.” Their still being engaged in the battle to now near the close of the “time of the end” denotes spiritual triumph for them. But as for those enemies who trust in “horses,” that is, in the world’s way of carrying on a fight against Jehovah’s worshipers, they have indeed experienced shame, disappointment. All the opposition, interference and persecution by these “riders of horses” have failed to stop the remnant of the spiritual “house of Judah.”

A UNIFIED NATION

19. (a) What breakup in the twelve-tribe nation of Israel took place in 997 B.C.E.? (b) How did the survivors of both resulting kingdoms become exiles together in Babylonia?

¹⁹ In the day of the prophet Zechariah during the sixth century before our Common Era, the nation of Israel was unified by the releasing of the faithful remnant from Babylon and the restoring of them to the land of Judah. In the year 997 B.C.E. there had been a breakup of the nation. Ten tribes revolted against the further rulership of the royal family of David; only the tribes of Benjamin and Judah stuck true to David’s royal line. The ten-tribe kingdom of Israel was under the leadership of its most populous tribe, that of Ephraim, the younger son of the patriarch Joseph. The tribe of Manasseh, the firstborn son of Joseph, lined up with its brother tribe of Ephraim. The ten-tribe kingdom of the north lasted only till 740 B.C.E., when its then capital, Samaria, was destroyed by the Assyrians and the survivors were deported to Assyrian territories. But about 632 B.C.E., Babylon overthrew Assyria and absorbed its territories and its Israelite exiles. So when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. and deported its survivors to Babylonia, all tribes became exiles.

20. (a) Why were the exiles of the ten-tribe kingdom spoken of as the “house of Ephraim” or the “house of Joseph”? (b) How did Jehovah indicate there would be a unification of both houses?

²⁰ Since the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, dominated the ten-tribe kingdom, its exiles were spoken of as the “house of Ephraim” or “the house of Joseph,” whose chief representative was Ephraim. Indicating that all twelve tribes of Israel would be reunified in the land of Judah by the return there of a faithful remnant of exiles, Jehovah now speaks of both houses and goes on to say: “And I will make the house of Judah superior, and the house of Joseph I shall save. And I will give them a dwelling, for I will show them mercy; and they must become like those whom I had not cast off; for I am Jehovah their God, and I shall answer them. And those of Ephraim must become just like a mighty man, and their heart must rejoice as though from wine. And their own sons will see and certainly rejoice; their heart will be joyful in Jehovah.”​—Zechariah 10:6, 7.

21. (a) Over whom did Jehovah make the “house of Judah” superior, and in what way did He save the “house of Joseph”? (b) How did they become like those whom Jehovah had never cast off?

²¹ The Sovereign Lord God was the One who made the “house of Judah,” that specially represented the Messianic kingdom of David, “superior” to its enemies. Exiles of the “house of Joseph” were also saved, that is to say, given the victory over their enemies. Jehovah of armies gave them a dwelling with their fellow tribesmen in the Persian province of Judah, after he delivered them from the exile into which Assyria had taken them. Like the house of Judah, these also became “just like a mighty man” in Jehovah’s service. Upon them he had mercy even as upon the other exiles, and all the restored exiles together became as a people whom he had never cast off because of their disobedience. This fact was especially plain for all to observe when the repatriated exiles finally completed the building of the second temple at Jerusalem, to worship him unitedly there as the God of the whole nation. He demonstrated that he heard their prayers by answering them.

22. (a) Why is the stimulation to joy on their part stronger than that induced by wine? (b) In what way do their “sons” share in that joy?

²² The stimulation of their heart to rejoice was stronger than that induced by drinking wine. Their stimulation was a spiritual one. Their heart was joyful in their God, Jehovah, because of what he had done for them, because of the mercy that he had displayed to them. Their sons, born to them in their regained homeland, would share in this divine mercy and goodness. They too see it, experience it and would rejoice with their parents because of it.

23. In the final fulfillment, what corresponds with the “house of Judah” and the “house of Joseph” (Ephraim), and where and since when has Jehovah united them?

²³ In the final fulfillment of the prophecy in our twentieth century concerning the “house of Judah” and the “house of Joseph” (Ephraim) there are two parts of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel to be taken into account. There was the original part that came through the hard experiences of World War I and was restored to divine favor and liberated in 1919 C.E. And there was the newer part that was delivered from Babylon the Great since 1919 C.E. and that was joined to the original anointed remnant. The unification of them all as one “people for special possession” of Jehovah took place in the spiritual estate into which he brought them together from 1919 C.E. onward. Thus they could unitedly work together for the reestablishment and expansion of the worship of the only living and true God at His spiritual temple. By his invincible spirit he caused this “drove” of sheeplike disciples of His Messiah to become like a dignified war-horse not afraid to charge into the battle.

24. How did the united remnant now show courage like that of a horse charging into the battle? That is, in Kingdom proclamation?

²⁴ Thus they became more courageous than ever in the proclamation of the Messianic kingdom of God, the kingdom reigning in the heavens since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. Yes, they continued to distribute free Bible tracts, by the hundreds of millions of copies, to the homes of the people. But now they did not leave the brunt of the work to some hundreds of full-time “colporteurs,” for now they all undertook to knock at the doors of the people and interview the householders and place with them Bible study helps in the form of booklets and bound books on a nominal contribution toward the work. They engaged hundreds of radio stations to broadcast the Kingdom message throughout the earth, even organizing some of the largest broadcasting chains on occasions to reach the homes and ears of as many listeners as possible. When the mounting religious, political, judicial opposition made it difficult to carry on the radiocasting of the Kingdom message freely, sound cars topped by loudspeakers were sent out to herald the message afield. Portable phonographs were carried from door to door to play the message recorded on phonograph disks.

25. How was courageous proclamation made of the judgment messages issued during the years 1922-1928?

²⁵ During the seven years, 1922-1928 C.E., a series of seven general or international assemblies were held by the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites. At each of these in succession a fearless judgment message from God’s Holy Bible was declared, also being supported by an appropriate public address direct to visible audiences and to invisible audiences by radio. These judgment message proclamations and their supporting speeches were issued in the form of free tracts for free distribution in many languages, and hundreds of millions of these were placed in the hands of the people in many lands. These annual messages by speech and printed page were like the sounding of a series of seven trumpets to blast Jehovah’s modern-day judgments for all the world to hear. This is how they are pictured in the apocalyptic book of Revelation, chapters eight and nine and eleven.

26. How does the Revelation presentation of the fifth trumpet picture the anointed remnant, after release from Babylon the Great, as being warlike?

²⁶ Regarding the sounding of the fifth such trumpet message under angelic guidance, note how Revelation 9:7-11 pictures the remnant as released from Babylon the Great under the symbol of locusts and describes them: “And the likenesses of the locusts resembled horses prepared for battle; and upon their heads were what seemed to be crowns like gold, and their faces were as men’s faces, but they had hair as women’s hair. And their teeth were as those of lions; and they had breastplates like iron breastplates. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle. Also, they have tails and stings like scorpions; and in their tails is their authority to hurt the men five months. They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is A·badʹdon, but in Greek he has the name A·polʹlyon.” This pictures the remnant as warlike.

27. How is the Revelation presentation of the sixth trumpet in agreement with Zechariah 10:3-7 in showing the remnant to be warlike, as “mighty men”?

²⁷ The apocalyptic picture of the effects of the sounding of the sixth trumpet (beginning in 1927 C.E.) shows the remnant as riding hundreds of millions of publicity vehicles for announcing Jehovah’s judgments. Look at the description: “The number of the armies of cavalry was two myriads of myriads: I [John] heard the number of them. And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them: they had fire-red and hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow breastplates; and the heads of the horses were as heads of lions, and out of their mouths fire and smoke and sulphur issued forth. By these three plagues a third of the men were killed, from the fire and the smoke and the sulphur which issued forth from their mouths. For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with these they do harm.” (Revelation 9:16-19) So these symbolic visions are in harmony with Zechariah 10:3-7 in likening the restored remnant to Jehovah’s “horse of dignity in battle” and to “mighty men.”

MIGHTY OBSTACLES OVERCOME

28. In Zechariah 10:8-12, how did Jehovah speak of his overcoming obstacles when regathering his people as from Egypt and Assyria?

²⁸ As we can clearly see now, nothing has proved to be an insurmountable obstacle to Jehovah of armies in realizing his stated purpose. How he would treat such obstacles he stated in Zechariah 10:8-12, saying: “‘I will whistle for them and collect them together; for I shall certainly redeem them, and they must become many, just like those who have become many. And I shall scatter them like seed among the peoples, and in the distant places they will remember me; and they must revive with their sons and return. And I must bring them back from the land of Egypt; and from Assyria I shall collect them together; and to the land of Gilead and Lebanon I shall bring them, and no room will be found for them. And he must pass through the sea with distress; and in the sea he must strike down the waves, and all the depths of the Nile must dry up. And the pride of Assyria must be brought down, and the very scepter of Egypt will depart. And I will make them superior in Jehovah, and in his name they will walk about,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.”​—Zechariah 10:8-12.

29. (a) When did Jehovah humble the pride of Assyria, as foretold? (b) When did He whistle for his people who were scattered like seed, and what response was there to this?

²⁹ In this divine utterance the term Assyria would take in the territories to which the Assyrians deported the survivors of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel in 740 B.C.E. But the “pride” of Assyria was humbled by Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. In turn, the “pride” of this conqueror and dispossessor of Assyria was brought down by Jehovah’s earthly instrument, Cyrus the Great of Persia, in 539 B.C.E. Thereafter Jehovah could “whistle” to the scattered exiles of his people in the northern lands of the Babylonian Empire. Where he scattered them they multiplied like seed sown. In the lands of their exile, no matter how distant, they would hear his “whistle” and remember him. This would have a reviving effect upon them and upon their sons whom they had brought forth in exile. Alive and responsive to his inviting “whistle,” they would return to their desolated homeland.

30. What obstacles are suggested as to gathering his exiled people from Egypt, and how would Jehovah deal with those obstacles?

³⁰ Many of the exiles had been taken into exile or had fled for refuge into Egypt to the south. (2 Kings 23:31-34; 25:22-26) So Jehovah ‘whistled’ in that direction also. From there he collected members of the remnant to worship him at his temple in Jerusalem. The scepter wielded by the ruler of Egypt could not prevent this. Jehovah’s will was accomplished just as if the Egyptian scepter of authority had departed, did not exist. The “whistle” of the Most High God had more authority than Egypt’s scepter. If the waters of Egypt’s deified Nile River were an obstacle to His people he could treat them as if they had dried up for his people. If the Red Sea hindered, he could pass through that sea with “distress” to its waters. He could strike down its waves, that His returning exiles might pass through to his place of worship at Jerusalem. He could do again what he did before in 1513 B.C.E.

31. (a) How would Jehovah take care of any tendency toward overpopulating the land, and still allow for growth? (b) In what sense would they walk about in His name?

³¹ There was no fear of overpopulating the land. The Owner of all the earth would merely enlarge the borders of the land for his restored exiles. Their borders would take in the “land of Gilead” to the east of the Jordan River. Yes, also the land of Lebanon to the west along the Mediterranean Sea. In this enlarged area of occupancy they must “become many, just like those who have become many.” Their rate of population growth will not be behind that of any other populous land. They will be just as many as ever. The Most High and Almighty God would make them “superior” to all foreign efforts to oppress, suppress and diminish them. In His name, or as a people called by His name, they would walk about. Wherever they walked, they would have His name in mind and seek to honor it, doing nothing to downgrade it.

32. When did Jehovah begin to “whistle” to his exiles, and how?

³² In the year 537 B.C.E. Jehovah began to “whistle” to his exiled people by the decree of liberation issued by Babylon’s conqueror, the Persian Cyrus the Great. (Ezra 1:1 to 3:2) That decree did not apply to Egypt, but later the way was opened for the exiles in Egypt to return to their God-given land.

33. When did Jehovah begin to “whistle” to the exiles of spiritual Israel, and by what means?

³³ Likewise in the year 1919 C.E. Babylon the Great experienced a great fall at the hands of the Greater Cyrus, the triumphant enthroned King Jesus Christ. Did Jehovah then begin to “whistle” to his exiled remnant? Evidently, Yes! How? Notably by means of that semimonthly magazine that today is known world wide as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom and that bears the front-cover subscription “‘You are my witnesses,’ says Jehovah.” (Isaiah 43:12) It conveyed to the members of the anointed remnant throughout the earth the call to reunite and gather to the support of God’s Messianic kingdom. As a step in that direction, it announced the arrangements for the holding of a general convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A., for September 1-8, 1919, and invited all readers to attend.

34. (a) How many attended that general gathering in 1919 C.E., and what did they learn about enlarging Kingdom preaching? (b) How has that enlarging of Kingdom publicity resulted today?

³⁴ About six thousand found it possible or convenient to share in this significant regathering and spiritual feast. They rejoiced at being restored to their rightful spiritual estate on earth. They learned of the arrangements to enlarge the means of publicizing God’s Messianic kingdom by starting a companion magazine, then called The Golden Age but now Awake! The first issue of this was dated October 1, 1919. It has since served as a powerful vehicle for proclaiming the Messianic kingdom and the age of life, peace, happiness and prosperity that this kingdom will shortly usher in. It was in the year 1940 C.E. that this magazine began to be offered publicly on the streets to the general public. Today more than seven million copies of each semimonthly issue are printed in more than twenty-five languages, and the number of recipients and readers of it goes on increasing.

35. (a) How was Jehovah’s “whistle” sounded out more and more widely, and with what effect? (b) How were obstacles to responding to the “whistle” overcome?

³⁵ From that start in the liberation year of 1919 C.E. the regathering of the remnant went forward. As the faithful surviving remnant courageously took up the Kingdom message with great joy and enthusiasm and spread it farther and farther, the “whistle” of Jehovah sounded out more widely. Many seekers of the true God, both inside and outside of Christendom, heard that “whistle” inviting them to the pure worship of the one living and true God at his spiritual temple. They put forth their best efforts to respond. Were there obstacles in their way, things like the Nile River or the Red Sea or political powers of oppression like Assyria and ancient Egypt? The God whom they sought to worship at the true spiritual temple opened his written Word to them and pointed out to them how to overcome and surmount those imposing obstacles. Obedience to God’s “whistle” must come first!

36. How, in their personal case, must the “pride of Assyria” be brought down, and the “scepter of Egypt” be made to “depart”?

³⁶ Fear they must cast aside. They must heed the call from heaven to come out of Babylon the Great, that world empire of false religion that includes not only Christendom but also pagandom. (Revelation 18:1-4) They must not let the “pride” of militarized, nationalistic governments like that of Assyria swell their heads. They must put Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom ahead of all man-made governments. In their personal case the interests of all high and mighty human rulerships must be brought down low before the interests of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and its Messianic instrument. The symbolic “scepter of Egypt” as wielded by the political powers of this world should not be considered as supreme in power and authority. They should think on the scepter wielded by God’s Messianic King, to whom Jehovah said, in 1914 C.E.: “The rod of your strength Jehovah will send out of [the heavenly] Zion, saying: ‘Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.’” (Psalm 110:1, 2) The comparing of this Messianic scepter with the “scepter of Egypt” makes this latter human scepter “depart.”

37, 38. (a) Instead of State worship, recognition must be given to Jehovah as being what, and how was help to see this requirement given? (b) What did that book Government say, in part, under “Theocracy” and “Jehovah King”?

³⁷ Instead of their recognizing the political State as supreme and rendering worship to the man-made State, recognition must be given by them to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah as the God Ruler or Theocrat. Help for them to see this requirement was given to the people in the book entitled “Government,” which was released to the public in the year 1928 at the general convention of the International Bible Students Association in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., July 30 to August 6, 1928, at which the symbolic seventh trumpet began to be blown. (Revelation 11:15-18) On pages 247-250 this book discussed “Theocracy” and “Jehovah King” and said, in part:

³⁸ “What form of government will then control the peoples of earth? That government will be a pure theocracy. For centuries the whole creation has groaned and suffered in pain, waiting for the manifestation of that government. (Rom. 8:19) Now the time has come for its establishment, and both the rulers and the ruled of the earth should learn the truth and rejoice. . . . A theocracy is a government of which the chief ruler is Jehovah God. He is the Maker and Executor of its laws through his duly constituted agencies. While it is true that supreme power has always resided in Jehovah, with the overthrow of Israel’s last king he permitted man to take his own course and has not interfered until his time has come to set upon his throne him ‘whose right it is.’ He it is whom God has appointed and anointed to rule under and in harmony with Jehovah. . . . The great theocracy, when seen and appreciated by the people, will be the joy of the whole earth.”

39. (a) By what form of government will Paradise be restored to mankind, and what kind of organization has Jehovah established in the spiritual Paradise of his remnant? (b) Those who would join the remnant in their theocratic spiritual estate must cut through what obstacles?

³⁹ It will be through the coming Theocracy that Paradise will be restored to mankind. At present a spiritual Paradise obtains among the restored remnant, among whom the Great Theocrat has established a theocratic organization. This spiritual remnant, thus organized, puts Jehovah God above all human rulers, autocratic or democratic, and says, in the words of Isaiah 33:22: “Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Statute-giver, Jehovah is our King; he himself will save us.” They take the theocratic position taken by the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ when before the Supreme Court of Jerusalem: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. . . . And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” (Acts 5:29-32) Hence those who would join the anointed remnant in their theocratic spiritual estate must cut across the democratic flow and current of the symbolic Nile River and the changing tides of the symbolic Red Sea of humankind and must submit to Jehovah’s theocratic arrangement. For the willing and obedient ones He can make those water obstacles as not existing.

40. (a) With respect to what has God made the remnant “superior in Jehovah,” and how? (b) How has the prophecy come true, “In his name they will walk about,” and what will they have a part in doing with the Messianic kingdom?

⁴⁰ In regathering and reuniting his anointed remnant of spiritual Israel the Almighty God has indeed ‘made them superior’ to all the obstacles and the adversaries. In their case it has indeed been, “not by a military force, nor by [human] power,” but by his spirit or invisible active force. It is just as He said: “I will make them superior in Jehovah.” Should they not, therefore, honor His sacred name and strive to act in harmony with the prayer that Jesus Christ taught them to pray: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified”? They add dignity to his name and they make known that “his name alone is unreachably high.” (Psalm 148:13) Thus in all lands where members of the anointed remnant are found today it is true just as foretold in Zechariah 10:12: “‘In his name they will walk about,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” Continuing to do this down to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, they will have part with the Messianic kingdom in forever vindicating the greatest Name in all the universe.

Chapter 18

Consequences of Rejecting God’s Shepherd Ruler

1. Why is it not strange that Jehovah should compare rulers lesser than Himself with shepherds?

THE GREATEST Ruler of all repeatedly compared himself to a shepherd. Take, for example, this beautiful comparison that He makes when foretelling how tenderly he would lead his exiled people back to their homeland: “Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will come even as a strong one, and his arm will be ruling for him. Look! His reward is with him, and the wage he pays is before him. Like a shepherd he will shepherd his own drove. With his arm he will collect together the lambs; and in his bosom he will carry them. Those giving suck he will conduct with care.” (Isaiah 40:10, 11) It would not be strange, then, that he should compare lesser rulers on earth to shepherds.

2. To what plants does Jehovah liken outstanding worldly rulers, and to what does he similarly liken the remnant liberated from Babylon?

² He also likened outstanding rulers to trees, tall in stature. The royal Pharaoh of ancient Egypt is thus compared to a stately tree. (Ezekiel 31:1-18) Even the exiled remnant whom Jehovah uses his Messiah or Anointed One to liberate and lead out of symbolic Babylon back to their God-given native land he compares to trees. He does so when he speaks of the assignment of work that He gives to his Messiah, namely: “To comfort all the mourning ones; to assign to those mourning over Zion, to give them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of exultation instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the downhearted spirit; and they must be called big trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, for him to be beautified.”​—Isaiah 61:1-3.

3, 4. (a) How does Zechariah draw a contrast between those “big trees of righteousness” and worldly “trees”? (b) According to Zechariah 11:1-3, why is there to be a howling and roaring?

³ Those symbolic “big trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah,” are referred to in the preceding tenth chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy, Zec 10 verses 3-12. How great a contrast is now drawn between them and the symbolic trees on elevated levels of our oppressive world! In Zechariah’s day the majestic mountains of Lebanon were clothed with forests of its world-famous “cedars of Lebanon” and other fragrant evergreen trees. How sad to think of such forests being ravaged by an inextinguishable conflagration! It is enough to make one howl. A suchlike howling by the world must yet come, for, almost like a sequel to chapter ten of Zechariah’s prophecy, chapter eleven opens up with the divine command to give vent to such howling. We read:

⁴ “Open up your doors, O Lebanon, that a fire may devour among your cedars. Howl, O juniper tree, for the cedar has fallen; because the majestic ones themselves have been despoiled! Howl, you massive trees of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down! Listen! The howling of shepherds, for their majesty has been despoiled. Listen! The roaring of maned young lions, for the proud thickets along the Jordan have been despoiled.”​—Zechariah 11:1-3.

5. When must such plantations of symbolic trees burn down, causing whom to howl?

⁵ No fire-prevention doors are provided for Lebanon. When Jehovah’s fixed time comes for his consuming fire to sweep through the majestic land, the doors of symbolic Lebanon must open up at His command to admit the fire. Even the tremendous cedars of Lebanon must fall before the divinely kindled flames, and that is why the associated juniper tree needs to howl. The massiveness of the tree does not make it fire resistant. That is why there must be a howling on the part of the impenetrable forests of massive trees on the highlands of Bashan to the east of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. These too must burn down in the world conflagration during the coming “great tribulation,” the tribulation of all tribulations for mankind. This will be a time of howling for shepherd rulers.

6. Why will the shepherd rulers howl because of the consuming of symbolic “trees,” and also roar like lions of the Jordan thickets?

⁶ If we listen in by faith to the clear-sounding message of Bible prophecy we can hear the howling of those worldly shepherd rulers. In the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at the battleground of Har–Magedon, they will be despoiled of their majesty of appearance and of office. (Revelation 16:14-16) They themselves are pictured by those majestic trees of Lebanon and massive trees of Bashan. They are also, symbolically, the “maned young lions.” Just as the maned young lions roar because there has been a burning down of the proud thickets along the banks of the Jordan River, in which these lions used to lurk, so will these lionlike shepherd rulers roar in consternation as they find themselves deprived of lurking places from which they used to pounce upon their unwary victims, the public, the people.

7. How does Malachi 4:1 refer to the same fiery day, and what will be the outcome of it to the shepherd rulers?

⁷ The time of fiery consumption that will despoil these worldly shepherds of their imposing dignity, stature and powerful position was also foretold by the prophet Malachi, who came on the scene some decades after Zechariah. Likening the presumptuous and wicked ones to plants, Malachi (4:1) says: “‘Look! the day is coming that is burning like the furnace, and all the presumptuous ones and all those doing wickedness must become as stubble. And the day that is coming will certainly devour them,’ Jehovah of armies has said, ‘so that it will not leave to them either root or bough.’” These political shepherds have claimed to rule because, by means of a democratic election, they have received a “mandate from the people” or because they have been born into the line of descent of some royal family, or because the clergy of Christendom have assigned to them the “divine right of kings.” However, this does not make them theocratic shepherds, or rulers appointed by the Great Theocrat through his Messiah. Hence the coming fiery day for executing God’s judgment will devour all their false claims. Neither root nor bough of them will remain.

DIVINELY APPOINTED SHEPHERD

8. How have the shepherd rulers sold the “sheep” to be killed or slaughtered, and who is it that can raise up an unselfish shepherd?

⁸ Since the governmental rulers are compared to shepherds, then their subjects, the people, are compared to a flock of sheep. The shepherdlike rulers have treated the sheep as if they belonged to them and have been willing to sell them into the hands of those selfish persons who could exploit and misuse the sheeplike people. They have, in effect, delivered them over to be killed, slaughtered for the sake of ambitious men who pay the price to get control or the advantage of the people. More than that, the governmental shepherds have led the people in a course that will at last result in their being slaughtered in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at the world situation called Har–Magedon. (Revelation 16:14-16; 19:11-21) Is there, however, no real “shepherd” who really has the interests of all the people at heart, and who is willing to expend himself rather than to exploit the sheep? Who can raise up such a shepherd, so that the individual sheep can put themselves under his care and guidance and be spared from the terrible killing? It is Jehovah.

9. In enacting a prophetic drama, what flock is Zechariah told to shepherd?

⁹ To picture this fact, the prophet Zechariah was used in enacting an allegory or prophetic drama. The prophet Zechariah himself describes it, in these words: “This is what Jehovah my God has said, ‘Shepherd the flock meant for the killing, the buyers of which proceed to kill them although they are not held guilty. And those who are selling them say: “May Jehovah be blessed, while I shall gain riches.” And their own shepherds do not show any compassion upon them.’”​—Zechariah 11:4, 5.

10. Who are the symbolic “flock,” to whom does the ownership belong, and why was Zechariah appointed to be the shepherd of the “flock meant for the killing”?

¹⁰ How pitiful the state of the “flock meant for the killing”! Back there this “flock” was the nation of Israel. The psalmist addressed the One who really owns this flock, saying: “O Shepherd of Israel, do give ear, you who are conducting Joseph just like a flock.” Acknowledging the ownership of that One, the psalmist said: “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasturage and the sheep of his hand.” (Psalm 80:1; 95:7) In view of His ownership, he had the right to appoint a faithful shepherd over them. This he did, by appointing the prophet Zechariah. This new earthly shepherd did not get a “mandate from the people,” democratically. He was theocratically appointed by the God Ruler, Jehovah. This heavenly Owner had in mind the saving of some individuals of this “flock meant for the killing.” He had already said: “Jehovah their God will certainly save them in that day like the flock of his people; for they will be as the stones of a diadem glittering over his soil.” (Zechariah 9:16) In furtherance of that purpose the Great Theocrat appointed Zechariah to shepherd the flock.

11. In what way did the “shepherds” selling them show no compassion for the sheep, and how were they accomplices in the slaughter of them?

¹¹ Zechariah was unlike the shepherd rulers who felt authorized to sell Jehovah’s sheep for personal gain. By thus enriching themselves, they felt that God was making them rich. After the heartless sale, these traitorous shepherd rulers hypocritically said: “May Jehovah be blessed, while I shall gain riches.” By so doing the shepherds to whom the sheeplike people entrusted themselves did not “show any compassion upon them.” Those shepherds knew that the buyers to whom they sold the “sheep” would kill them off in pursuit of ambitious, self-seeking schemes. Worse still, these buyers would not be “held guilty” for such slaughter. At least the shepherds who did the selling would not hold the buyers guilty. They were in that way accomplices in the slaughter. To them the sheep were merely a “flock meant for the killing.”

12. Whose sheep do people of Christendom claim to be, and are their earthly religious shepherds appointed theocratically?

¹² All this calls to mind a similar situation existing in Christendom in this twentieth century. The people, professing to be Christians, claim to be God’s sheep. They will apply to themselves Psalm 95:7 (quoted above) and recite in unison at church Psalm 23:1 (Authorized Version): “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” But these church people also look to earthly “shepherds.” In a religious sense especially, the clergymen of Christendom claim to be the shepherds of these sheep, each one of the hundreds of religious sects having its own flock. However, these shepherds are not theocratically appointed like Zechariah, for they are ordained each one by the ruling group of his own sect or denomination, or by a bishop or other ranking church dignitary, or by a congregation. Do such clergymen imitate those shepherds of Zechariah’s day?

13. How have such clergymen imitated the shepherds of Zechariah’s day in selling the “sheep” to be slaughtered?

¹³ It has been courageously pointed out that the clergy of Christendom, with their hundreds of millions of church members under their spiritual control, could have prevented world war in the year 1914 C.E. But they did not do so.a Without protest they surrendered their flocks to more than four years of the most brutal warfare till then in all human history. They, in fact, sold their flocks, in order that they might escape persecution for insisting on strict Christianity, and in order to gain favor with the military and the governmental shepherds. This was no less the case with World War II, which, like the first, started right in the heart of Christendom. The “killing” in this second world combat was still more horrible than that of the first one. Moreover, the religious clergy have catered to the commercial profiteers and to the politicians. They have meddled in politics and have sold their flocks to office-seekers who have no conscientious qualms about exploiting the people.

14. Who do the “shepherds” claim has thus enriched them, and why do the buyers of the sheep have no conscientious qualms at exploiting the sheep or causing their slaughter?

¹⁴ By gaining riches in this way, as far as material goods and popularity with the ruling class of this world is concerned, they feel that God has blessed them. And so they piously say: “Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich.” (Zechariah 11:5, AV) Because the “buyers” of the poor sheep have the blessing of the religious clergy they have no sense of guilt at exploiting the sheep or even causing the violent, mass slaughter of the sheep. “They are not held guilty” by the clergy of Christendom, but continue to be retained as full church members in good standing. It is very manifest, therefore, that the “shepherds,” religious and governmental, “do not show any compassion” upon the “sheep” of Christendom.

15. As to being exploited by traitorous shepherds, how do we know that the people have loved to have it that way?

¹⁵ In spite of all that, it has been just as God said, in Jeremiah 5:31: “The prophets themselves actually prophesy in falsehood; and as for the priests, they go subduing according to their powers. And my own people have loved it that way; and what will you men do in the finale of it?” And how do we know that those who profess to be God’s people “have loved it that way”? By observing that God’s professed people have not followed the leading of the faithful shepherd whom God has raised up, as pictured by the prophet Zechariah. They continue to let the traffickers in “sheep,” the buyers and the sellers, lead them on to the “killing.” Hence, when they have the consequences of their course come upon them, do they deserve any compassion?

16. As to that question about compassion, what is the divine answer in Zechariah 11:6?

¹⁶ The divine answer is given to the prophet Zechariah, the theocratic shepherd: “‘For I shall show compassion no more upon the inhabitants of the land,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘So here I am causing mankind to find themselves, each one in the hand of his companion and in the hand of his king; and they will certainly crush to pieces the land, and I shall do no delivering out of their hand.’”​—Zechariah 11:6.

17. To what self-seeking, loveless state will Jehovah let the “flock meant for the killing” come, and why will their calling out be in vain?

¹⁷ So, too, with reference to modern-day Christendom. The time must come when Jehovah will cease to show compassion upon the “flock meant for the killing.” He will let the loveless sheeplike people prey upon one another, the shepherds (religious and governmental) upon the sheep, the king or royal shepherd upon the sheep, and the sheep upon one another. It will be a state of anarchy. What could result from this but a general state of collapse for organized human society? The system of things will no longer hold together, things not being done systematically any longer according to worldly wisdom. Symbolically speaking, the anarchistic, chaotic victimizers of one another will unavoidably “crush to pieces the land,” that is, their organized earthly estate. Call as loudly and as long as they then will, Jehovah will “do no delivering out of their hand.” Why should he? They had repeatedly refused to follow his own appointed shepherd.

THE SHEPHERD’S WAGES​—THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

18. What kind of appointment was Zechariah’s appointment to shepherd the “flock” of Israel, and what question arises as to his services?

¹⁸ To what extent do those who merely claim to be God’s people appreciate the spiritual “shepherd” whom he has raised up and sent to them? This is prophetically pictured for us in the experience of the prophet Zechariah. Not by a popular mandate, but by a theocratic appointment he was sent to “shepherd” the flock of Israel. How much was he appreciated? How highly were his services valued? He is very frank in telling us:

19. How many staffs did Zechariah take, how many shepherds did he efface in one month, and how did he show that he was breaking his covenant with the people?

¹⁹ “And I proceeded to shepherd the flock meant for the killing, in your behalf, O afflicted ones of the flock [or, possibly, ‘in behalf of the tradesmen of the flock,’ margin]. So I took for myself two staffs. The one I called Pleasantness, and the other I called Union [literally, Binders], and I went shepherding the flock. And I finally effaced three shepherds in one lunar month, as my soul gradually became impatient with them, and also their own soul felt a loathing toward me. At length I said: ‘I shall not keep shepherding you. The one that is dying, let her die. And the one that is being effaced, let her be effaced. And as for the ones left remaining, let them devour, each one the flesh of her companion.’ So I took my staff Pleasantness and cut it to pieces, in order to break my covenant that I had concluded with all the peoples. And it came to be broken in that day, and the afflicted ones of the flock who were watching me got to know in this way that it was the word of Jehovah.”​—Zechariah 11:7-11.

20. What was the use for the staffs, and what did Zechariah name the staffs respectively, and why?

²⁰ As a shepherd, Zechariah took as part of his equipment two staffs, the one for guiding the sheep and the other for protecting them. The former shepherd boy David makes reference to these in Psalm 23:1-4, saying: “Jehovah is my Shepherd. . . . Even though I walk in the valley of deep shadow, I fear nothing bad, for you are with me; your rod and your staff are the things that comfort me.” The one staff, evidently the one for guiding the sheep, Zechariah called Pleasantness, this referring to the favor that was shown to the sheep. The other staff, evidently the rod for beating off attackers of the sheep, he called Union (literally, Binders, for keeping a unity). It was a favor from Zechariah’s God, Jehovah of armies, toward the sheep that Jehovah assigned Zechariah to act as shepherd of the sheep. So one staff was named Pleasantness.

21. Of what kind of sheep was Zechariah made the shepherd, and of what nationalities were these made up, and whom did Zechariah represent as shepherd?

²¹ However, Jehovah’s prophet was not made a shepherd over literal sheep. They were symbolic sheep, namely, the house of Israel, made up then of a remnant from the kingdom of Judah and a remnant made up of members from the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel, the principal tribe of which was Ephraim. Accordingly Zechariah was theocratically appointed to take a spiritual supervision over the remnant of all the house of Israel, like a ruler or governor. In this office he really represented Jehovah, the heavenly Shepherd.

22. Was Zechariah obliged to do shepherding for nothing, why was his shepherding obligatory upon the Israelites, and what shows whether a contract was involved?

²² The prophet Zechariah was not to do shepherding for nothing. For services rendered he was entitled to a wage. At the termination of his services he could rightly demand his pay. Inasmuch as he was the shepherd appointed by the Great Theocrat Jehovah, his shepherding was something obligatory upon the remnant of Israel to accept and to show appreciation for by the value that they placed upon it. Was there a specific contract or engagement made with the house of Israel that would allow for such shepherding? That there was such a contract or covenant is implied by what Zechariah tells us when explaining his resigning from the work, saying: “So I took my staff Pleasantness and cut it to pieces, in order to break my covenant that I had concluded with all the peoples.” (Zechariah 11:10) That is, with “all the peoples” of Israel.

23. Whose contract with Israel was it that was here involved, and why so?

²³ Whose “covenant” or solemn contract was it, then? Seemingly, it was Zechariah’s personal covenant. But let us remember that it was Jehovah who said to him: “Shepherd the flock meant for the killing.” (Zechariah 11:4) This is what Jehovah did because the acting shepherds were selling for slaughter or killing the sheep of the flock that really belonged to Jehovah God. This meant that it was Jehovah’s covenant that was here involved; it was in the discharging of his covenant with Israel that he made this appointment of a prophet to be the nation’s shepherd. In harmony with this basic fact, the footnotes of Biblia Hebraica (Hebrew Bible), by Rudolf Kittel, Stuttgart, West Germany, says that, instead of “my covenant that I had concluded,” we should probably read: “the covenant of Jehovah that Jehovah had concluded.” This is because here the pronominal endings in the Hebrew text that are generally translated as “my” and “I” are really abbreviations for the divine name Jehovah.​—See the footnotes on the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 1971 edition.

24. (a) How long did Zechariah shepherd the flock, and how do we know? (b) In whose behalf did he shepherd the flock?

²⁴ There were other shepherds working at the time. It appears that they resented the intrusion of Jehovah’s prophet into their field of activity. Zechariah worked as a shepherd for at least one month, for he tells us: “I finally effaced three shepherds in one lunar month, as my soul gradually became impatient with them, and also their own soul felt a loathing toward me.” (Zechariah 11:8) Just who these three shepherds were, we are not told. But because he had been appointed by the Most High God, Zechariah had the superior authority among them, so that he could dismiss the three of them. How much longer after effacing those three shepherds he continued shepherding, we do not know. Why he tended the flock at all, at Jehovah’s command, was just as he explained: “I proceeded to shepherd the flock meant for the killing, in your behalf, O afflicted ones of the flock.” (Zechariah 11:7, NW; AV; Yg) This was more compassionate on Zechariah’s part than for him to “shepherd the flock meant for the killing in behalf of the tradesmen of the flock.” (NW, margin; JB; RS; AT; Ro) These sheep had in effect been abandoned to the tradesmen. (Mo) How heartless!

25. (a) What feeling developed between Zechariah and the three shepherds, and why? (b) At whose instance was the “covenant” with the flock broken, and how do we know?

²⁵ Zechariah did not become impatient with the flock of afflicted sheep. His “soul,” his whole being, became impatient with the three delinquent shepherds. Because he was faithful and compassionate in shepherding the flock, those shepherds loathed Zechariah. He did not work along with their schemes. It was only after effacing them as shepherds that, at Jehovah’s due time, Zechariah gave up his job. Thus the “covenant” that had been “concluded with all the peoples” of Israel was broken. That this came about, not at his own inclination, but according to the Great Shepherd’s own direction and decision, Zechariah indicates. For, after cutting to pieces his staff called Pleasantness as an act symbolic of breaking the covenant, he goes on to say: “And it came to be broken in that day, and the afflicted ones of the flock who were watching me got to know in this way that it was the word of Jehovah.”​—Zechariah 11:10, 11.

26. What did the breaking of the covenant mean for the flock of Israel as regards their welfare and unity?

²⁶ What did this breaking of the covenant mean for the flock of peoples of Israel? Just what Zechariah said on discontinuing his shepherding: “I shall not keep shepherding you. The one that is dying, let her die. And the one that is being effaced, let her be effaced. And as for the ones left remaining, let them devour, each one the flesh of her companion.” (Zechariah 11:9) When Jehovah’s appointed shepherd was ordered to withdraw, who, then, would take care of the flock? Those who sought to make capital of the flock would let the dying ones die off, the ones being effaced or disappearing go without attention in order to bring them out of their lost condition, and the ones left remaining fight among themselves, devouring one another by showing no love but by taking selfish advantage of one another.

27. The covenant was broken due to a lack of further compassion on whose part, and what would be the result when the determination to break off compassion took effect?

²⁷ So, then, did the breaking of the covenant result from mercilessness on Zechariah’s part? No, but it resulted because Jehovah’s time for showing compassion had run to its limit and had come to its end. That is why Zechariah was previously told: “‘For I shall show compassion no more upon the inhabitants of the land,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘So here I am causing mankind to find themselves, each one in the hand of his companion and in the hand of his king; and they will certainly crush to pieces the land, and I shall do no delivering out of their hand.’” (Zechariah 11:6) Because of the peoples not heeding God’s appointed shepherd, whom he sent to them in his compassion, what anarchy was to result! What a clash of self-interests! What oppression! What insecurity! What ruin to the system of things under the crushing activities of the lawless, disorderly ones! What a terrible experience awaited the flock of Jehovah’s professed sheep when this divine determination went into effect!

WAGES AND THE VALUE PLACED UPON THE SHEPHERD

28. Whom did Zechariah here picture, and what kind of appointment did that one get, and what sign of it was given?

²⁸ Zechariah was enacting a prophetic picture or allegory. He pictured a greater shepherd in the fulfillment of the prophecy. This one was Jehovah’s Messiah, Jesus the descendant and permanent heir of King David. (Matthew 1:1-6) After this one had worked as a carpenter in Nazareth of Galilee until he was thirty years of age, he was sent to be a spiritual shepherd of the nation of Israel. The rulers of the land, political and religious, did not ask him to become such. His shepherd appointment was not by a “mandate from the people,” but it was a theocratic appointment and it ranked him higher than all man-made “shepherds.” At Nazareth itself, his hometown, he pointed to his being anointed with Jehovah’s spirit to be the Messiah and hence to act as shepherd of the flock of God’s people. The prophet, John the Baptist, saw this Jesus being anointed with the holy spirit by a visible manifestation. This happened right after John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan River according to Jehovah’s will.​—John 1:19-36.

29. How did Jesus, in a parable, show how the sheep were turned over to him by a symbolic “doorkeeper”?

²⁹ John the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Messiah Jesus, acted as a “doorkeeper” to the sheepfold of Israel. Jesus Christ referred to this when he spoke in a parable and said: “Most truly I say to you, He that does not enter into the sheepfold through the door but climbs up some other place, that one is a thief and a plunderer. But he that enters through the door is shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens to this one, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has got all his own out, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. A stranger they will by no means follow but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. . . . The thief does not come unless it is to steal and slay and destroy. I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance. I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep.”​—John 10:1-11.

30. (a) To whom did Jesus confine his shepherding, and how did he indicate this? (b) How and when did Moses foretell this prophet?

³⁰ Confining his own efforts exclusively to the flock of Israel, he sent out his twelve apostles and said to them: “Do not go off into the road of the nations, and do not enter into a Samaritan city; but, instead, go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’” (Matthew 10:5-7) Before he considered the request of a Phoenician woman to heal her badly demonized daughter, Jesus reminded her: “I was not sent forth to any but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:22-24) This was in accord with the covenant of divine law that Jehovah God had made with the house of Israel through his mediator Moses at Mount Sinai in 1513 B.C.E. In counseling the Israelites to be obedient to that covenant by shunning demonism of all kinds, Moses said to the Israelites shortly before his death: “A prophet from your own midst, from your brothers, like me, is what Jehovah your God will raise up for you​—to him you people should listen.” (Deuteronomy 18:15) That promised prophet greater than Moses was the Messiah, Jesus.​—Deuteronomy 18:16-19; Acts 3:22, 23.

31. How is it evident from the record that Jesus showed compassion on the sheep, but what about other shepherds?

³¹ That Jesus had real compassion on the flock of Israel just as the true Messianic shepherd should have is evident from the account: “Jesus set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom and curing every sort of disease and every sort of infirmity. On seeing the crowds he felt pity for them, because they were skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:35, 36) There is nothing else for us to conclude but that the others who should have been shepherds were failing in their duty.

32. Whom did the “three shepherds” whom Zechariah dismissed picture in Jesus’ day?

³² Who, then, in order to fulfill the prophetic picture, were the “three shepherds” whom Jesus Christ would efface, cut off, dismiss from their assumed positions? The record of Jesus’ life shows no three individual men as fulfilling the prophetic pattern. Evidently the three shepherds whom the prophet Zechariah discharged pictured three classes of men in Jesus’ time. Three classes do appear in the record, who had governmental as well as religious power in Israel. These were (1) the Pharisees and (2) the Sadducees, both of which classes were represented in the Jewish Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. That judicial body had governmental functions to some extent under the Roman governor as well as religious functions. Thus a certain Nicodemus, a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, was a “ruler of the Jews.” (John 3:1, 2; 7:50-52) Joseph, a rich man of Arimathea, was also a member of the Sanhedrin. (Matthew 27:57-60; Luke 23:50-53) The Sanhedrin was quite divided between Pharisees and Sadducees. (Acts 23:1-9) Besides such Jewish sectarians, there were also (3) the Herodians, the “party followers of Herod.”​—Mark 12:13.

33. How, as pictured in Zechariah’s case, did Jesus become “impatient” with those “three shepherds”?

³³ Similar to the feeling of the “three shepherds” toward Zechariah as a shepherd, these three groups quickly “felt a loathing” toward Jesus Christ as the Messianic shepherd. They plotted or cooperated together against Jesus to discredit him in the eyes of the flock of Israel. (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 3:6) Jesus did not efface, cut off or dismiss these three hostile groups “in one lunar month” literally. The literal “lunar month” in Zechariah’s case would picture a short period of time in Jesus’ case. (Zechariah 11:8) From the very start of his ministry Jesus refused to have anything to do with those self-seeking ruling groups, that is, as far as joining in with them is concerned. Finally, at the close of his ministry his soul did become “impatient” with them. On public occasions he put all three groups to silence as far as government and doctrine are concerned. (Matthew 22:15-45) The result was, as stated in Matthew 22:46: “Nobody was able to say a word in reply to him, nor did anyone dare from that day [Tuesday, Nisan 11 of 33 C.E.] on to question him any further.”

34. (a) What did Jesus say at the climax of his denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees? (b) As if breaking the staff called Pleasantness, what did he say to Jerusalem?

³⁴ Jesus Christ had just told them: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:23-43; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-44) Shortly after that declaration he openly denounced the scribes and the Pharisees as oppressive shepherds and religious hypocrites. Said he at the climax of his denunciation: “Therefore you are bearing witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Well, then, fill up the measure of your forefathers. Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” (Matthew 23:1-33; Mark 12:38-40; Luke 20:45-47) Then, as if cutting to pieces the shepherd’s staff called Pleasantness, he added: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,​—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you.”​—Matthew 23:37, 38.

35. By those words, what was Jesus announcing to the Jews concerning God’s Law Covenant with them, and what did the “afflicted ones” watching Jesus then know?

³⁵ When Jehovah God abandoned the Jewish temple of his worship at Jerusalem that meant that he was breaking the covenant of law that he had made with the nation of Israel through Moses. So Jesus, as the shepherd foreshadowed by Zechariah, was announcing that the covenant that Jehovah had concluded with the peoples of Israel was about to be broken. The “afflicted ones” of the flock of Israel who were watching Jesus and hearing his words “got to know in this way that it was the word of Jehovah.”​—Zechariah 11:11.

36. What did this mean regarding God’s pleasantness toward Israel, and finally what terrible consequences came for rejecting Jehovah’s Shepherd Ruler?

³⁶ This meant that Jehovah was no longer to show pleasantness toward his disobedient chosen people. He was about to “show compassion no more” upon the inhabitants of the “land of Judah.” That land was to suffer all the horrors of the invasion of Judea and the destruction of its cities and strongholds, including Jerusalem and its temple, in the cruel years of 70-73 C.E. Jesus Christ foretold this tragedy on that same day of Nisan 11 of 33 C.E., in his prophecy regarding the “conclusion of the system of things.” (Matthew 24:1-22; Mark 13:1-20; Luke 21:5-24) This national calamity was, if nothing else, a painful indication that the Mosaic Law covenant between God and Israel had been broken. What terrible consequences for rejecting God’s Shepherd Ruler!

37. How was the value that was placed on Zechariah’s shepherding shown, what did Jehovah then tell him to do, and what did he now cut in pieces?

³⁷ Just how highly was Jehovah’s appointed shepherd valued by the peoples of Israel? The prophet Zechariah illustrates it in his own experience and thereby foreshadows something of greater significance. He tells us: “Then I said to them: ‘If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; but if not, refrain.’ And they proceeded to pay my wages, thirty pieces of silver. At that, Jehovah said to me: ‘Throw it to the treasury​—the majestic value with which I have been valued from their standpoint.’ Accordingly I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the treasury at the house of Jehovah. Then I cut in pieces my second staff, the Union, in order to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.”​—Zechariah 11:12-14.

38. What was the value of that pay given to Zechariah, and how did Jehovah refer to this pay?

³⁸ “Thirty pieces of silver”​—thirty silver shekels—​was the price of a slave according to the Mosaic Law covenant. (Exodus 21:32) Was the prophet Zechariah or the value of his shepherd services worth no more than a slave? And since Zechariah had been appointed by the Heavenly Shepherd Jehovah, the valuation placed upon his appointed representative Zechariah was the same as a valuation placed upon Jehovah as a Shepherd. Jehovah could speak of it as the “value with which I have been valued from their standpoint.” (Unless Zechariah were here making a parenthetical reference to himself!) True, Jehovah did speak of it as a “majestic value” instead of a slave’s value; but evidently this expression was used, not in satisfaction, but in sarcasm or in a cutting manner. It meant that the lack of appreciation was felt.

39. What did Zechariah’s cutting of the staff Union (or, Binders) to pieces indicate respecting the twelve-tribe nation of Israel?

³⁹ At such devaluation of the shepherd who represented Jehovah the basis for unity in the flock of God’s professed people was taken away. There would not be a case of one shepherd, one flock. This would take away the protective power that unity raises up against attacks from outside. So it was with good timing that Zechariah cut to pieces the staff called Union (or, Binders) at this point. This was to illustrate that the foundation for “brotherhood” between those of the kingdom of Judah and those of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel was taken away. It was over the issue of having one Messianic king, one of the royal line of David, that the nation of twelve tribes was broken up into two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, after King Solomon’s death in 997 B.C.E. So the breaking of the Mosaic Law covenant meant, not only the end of Jehovah’s “pleasantness” or favor to his once chosen people, but also that divine care and protection for keeping the nation together as a harmonious whole had ended. The spiritual bonds that make for brotherhood had been taken away, and the mere fleshly bond would not be strong enough to hold them together as brothers.

40. (a) Why was this undervaluing of Jehovah’s shepherd more serious in the case of the one pictured by Zechariah? (b) What should a shepherd ruler receive as pay from his subjects?

⁴⁰ The undervaluing of God’s provisions and the rejecting of them always lead to sad consequences. Great as was the undervaluing of Jehovah as the Great Shepherd in the case of the prophet Zechariah, it was far surpassed in the case of the Messianic Shepherd pictured by Zechariah. That one was nobody else but the Son of God, whom God sent from heaven to become the Fine Shepherd to surrender his soul or lay down his perfect human life in behalf of all sheeplike human creatures. (John 10:14-18) Since the Messiah Jesus was acting as a shepherd in behalf of his heavenly Father, he could have exercised his right to ask for his wages in behalf of his Father. What wages or pay is it that a governmental shepherd asks of his subjects? It is that his subjects should render support to him and to his government whether in a material way or in loyal services rendered. The appointed officers under the governmental shepherd are the ones that should see to it that the shepherd gets such wages or pay from all his subjects. Just as Solomon, a theocratically appointed king, wrote: “My son, fear Jehovah and the king. With those who are for a change, do not intermeddle.”​—Proverbs 24:21.

41. (a) Did Zechariah force the people to pay him his shepherd wages? (b) When could the Jewish representatives have paid Jesus as shepherd, but when were they forced to place a value upon him?

⁴¹ For almost three and a half years Jesus served faithfully as a spiritual shepherd over the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Toward the close of his shepherd work, during his last week of his life in human flesh on earth, he did not go directly to the shepherdlike representatives of Israel, as the prophet Zechariah did, and ask for his wages or pay. Zechariah told those in his day that if they did not want to pay they did not need to: “If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; but if not, refrain.” (Zechariah 11:12) In Jesus’ case, when, in triumphal fashion, he rode on an ass’s colt into Jerusalem, the shepherdlike representatives of Israel could have paid him the wage of giving him their acceptance of him as the true Messiah sent and anointed by Jehovah. But they refrained from doing this. Nonetheless, they were forced, just three days later (Nisan 12, 33 C.E.), to place a money value on him as a spiritual shepherd. How? Let us read:

42. What value was stipulated to Judas Iscariot for Jesus, and when?

⁴² “Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said: ‘What will you give me to betray him to you?’ They stipulated to him thirty silver pieces. So from then on [Nisan 12] he kept seeking a good opportunity to betray him. On the first day of the unfermented cakes [Nisan 14] the disciples came up to Jesus, saying: ‘Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the passover?’”​—Matthew 26:14-17.

43. What was Jesus’ attitude toward the sale of him by his known betrayer, and when was the sale consummated?

⁴³ Those religious shepherds gave Judas Iscariot the thirty silver shekels. (Mark 14:10, 11; Luke 22:3-6) Jesus foreknew that he would be betrayed and that the betrayer was Judas Iscariot. (Matthew 17:22, 23; 20:17-19; 26:1, 2, 24, 25) Jesus did nothing to hinder the sale of him by betrayal. (Matthew 26:45-57) In fact, he expedited the betrayal, that it might occur at God’s due time, for, at the Passover supper he identified Judas Iscariot and dismissed him with the words: “What you are doing get done more quickly.” The betrayer immediately went out to carry out his bargain with the religious shepherds. (John 13:21-30) Hours later that Passover night the betrayal took place and Judas Iscariot had earned his money. (John 18:1-14) The evaluating of Jesus the Messianic Shepherd had been consummated. At thirty silver shekels, the price of a slave according to the Mosaic Law covenant! A majestic value!

44, 45. (a) What was done with the money at which Zechariah was priced? (b) What was done with the money that Judas Iscariot accepted for betraying Jesus?

⁴⁴ Judas Iscariot accepted this price. He had been the treasurer of the twelve apostles, but he did not put the money into their money box. He kept it for himself​—for a while! (John 12:4-6) In the ancient case of the prophet Zechariah, he did not keep the thirty silver shekels that had been paid to him as his wages. The money really belonged to his Master, Jehovah, and so Jehovah said to him: “Throw it to the treasury.” Zechariah did so. (Zechariah 11:12, 13) His action was a premonition of something. Not that Zechariah prefigured Judas Iscariot, but, just the same, like Zechariah, Judas did not keep his thirty silver shekels. What he did with them, or, rather, what resulted from his disposing of the betrayal money is reported to us:

⁴⁵ “When it had become morning, all the chief priests and the older men of the people held a consultation against Jesus so as to put him to death. And, after binding him, they led him off and handed him over to Pilate the governor. Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing he had been condemned, felt remorse and turned the thirty silver pieces back to the chief priests and older men, saying: ‘I sinned when I betrayed righteous blood.’ They said: ‘What is that to us? You must see to that!’ So he threw the silver pieces into the temple and withdrew, and went off and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said: ‘It is not lawful to drop them into the sacred treasury, because they are the price of blood.’ After consulting together, they bought with them the potter’s field to bury strangers. Therefore that field has been called ‘Field of Blood’ to this very day. Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying: ‘And they took the thirty silver pieces, the price upon the man that was priced, the one on whom some of the sons of Israel set a price, and they gave them for the potter’s field, according to what Jehovah had commanded me.’”​—Matthew 27:1-10.

46. (a) How did the apostle Peter later speak about Judas Iscariot and the disposal of the thirty shekels? (b) What inconsistency did the priests show respecting the blood that those thirty shekels represented?

⁴⁶ Because the money used by the priests in the purchase of the potter’s field had been provided by Judas Iscariot, the apostle Peter speaks of Judas as having bought the field for the burial of Jews who died while visiting in Jerusalem or of proselytes. Peter said to the Christian congregation regarding Judas: “This very man, therefore, purchased a field with the wages for unrighteousness, and pitching head foremost [after hanging himself up high] he noisily burst in his midst and his intestines were poured out. It also became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that that field was called in their language A·kelʹda·ma, that is, Field of Blood.” (Acts 1:18, 19) The priests merely acted for Judas in taking the money out of the temple sanctuary where Judas had thrown the thirty silver shekels and conveyed it to the seller of the potter’s field. The priests saw the unfitness of dropping the “price of blood” into the temple treasury, but at the same time they thought themselves fit to serve in that temple in spite of their having caused that blood to be shed.

47. (a) How could it be that the apostle Matthew could say Jeremiah and yet really mean Zechariah? (b) How does the Aramaic Version dispose of the difficulty?

⁴⁷ We notice that, in Matthew 27:9, 10, the apostle Matthew says that it was the saying of the prophet Jeremiah that was fulfilled. If Matthew was referring to that section of the Hebrew Scriptures known as The Prophets and this section in Matthew’s day was headed by the prophecy of Jeremiah, then the name Jeremiah would include all the other prophetic books, including that of Zechariah. In such a case Matthew would really be meaning Zechariah although using the name Jeremiah.b The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts (Peshitta) omits the name and reads: “Then what was spoken by the prophet was fulfilled, namely, I took the thirty pieces of silver, the costly price which was bargained with the children of Israel, and I gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.” (George M. Lamsa, 1957) The Syriac New Testament translated into English from the Peshitto Version, by James Murdock (copyrighted 1893), reads the same way, in omitting the prophet’s name.c

48. (a) How does Matthew’s loose translation of Zechariah’s prophecy show the disposal of the thirty shekels? (b) This fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy confirms that he pictured whom here?

⁴⁸ Since Matthew 27:9, 10 corresponds with Zechariah 11:13 and with nothing in the book of Jeremiah, Matthew’s quotation must have been a loose translation of Zechariah 11:13. The way in which Matthew translated Zechariah 11:13 was evidently meant to show how the fulfillment of Zechariah 11:13 worked out, namely, that “they took,” the priestly representatives of Israel took, the thirty silver pieces from the floor of the temple, and “they [the priests, acting instead of the individual, Judas Iscariot] gave them for the potter’s field.” Zechariah 11:13 does not tell us how the thirty silver shekels that Zechariah threw into the treasury of Jehovah’s temple were particularly disposed of later. Matthew, however, does tell us how the fulfillment of the prophecy did dispose of the money, to fit the altered circumstances. This fulfillment would confirm that the shepherd Zechariah here pictured the betrayed and sold Messianic Shepherd, Jesus, so cheaply priced.

49. The fulfillment of Zechariah’s breaking of the staff called “the Union” took place when, and with what consequences to the Jews?

⁴⁹ Just as Zechariah thereafter broke the second staff, called “the Union” or “Binders,” so the betrayal of Jesus for thirty silver shekels did lead to Jehovah’s canceling of the Mosaic Law covenant with Israel. When the resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven and appeared in God’s presence and presented to Him the value of his perfect human sacrifice, then the Mosaic Law covenant was blotted out, and the promised new covenant was inaugurated with spiritual Israel, Christian Israel. (Ephesians 2:13-16; Colossians 2:14-17; Hebrews 9:24-28) This left the natural, circumcised Jews that refused the new covenant mediated by Jesus Christ exposed to the false Jewish Christs. It left them without a true theocratic bond of union, and their disunity into a number of religious sects worked out disastrously for them at the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 C.E.

50. How has Christendom, in effect, placed a cheap price on the Messianic Shepherd Jesus Christ, how is she guilty of covenant breaking, and how will failure to have God’s Pleasantness affect her?

⁵⁰ Like ancient Israel, Christendom with her hundreds of sects has rejected the shepherdly care of the Messianic Shepherd, the heavenly Jesus Christ. How so? Not according to her pious professions, of course, but according to her acts. She has betrayed him by betraying his true disciples, whom she has persecuted, even to the death in many cases. She has refused the services of the spiritual shepherds whom the heavenly Messianic Shepherd has sent to her. What she has done to them, she has, in effect, done to him. (Matthew 25:40, 45; Mark 9:37; John 15:20, 21) Thus she has placed a cheap price on his shepherdly services, rejecting them. This reveals that she is not in harmony with the new covenant, which she claims applies to her; and so, by taking her at her word, she has broken that new covenant. So she does not enjoy the Pleasantness or favor of Jehovah God, and He does not protect her to keep her in unity. She too is exposed to all the false Christs. Her disunity will continue until the coming “great tribulation” that was pictured by Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E.​—Matthew 24:21, 22.

“A USELESS SHEPHERD”

51. (a) Christendom’s rejection of the Messianic Shepherd leaves the people to the leadership of whom? (b) Instead of accepting the Messianic Shepherd whom Jehovah provided, Christendom has chosen what organization?

⁵¹ When Jehovah’s Fine Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and his true undershepherds are rejected by people who profess to worship the God of the Holy Bible, there is nothing left for such people but to come under the leadership of selfish, worldly-minded shepherds. (1 Peter 5:1-4) Jehovah denounced the self-seeking governmental shepherds and reassured the sheeplike people by saying: “I will raise up over them one shepherd, and he must feed them, even my servant David. He himself will feed them, and he himself will become their shepherd. And I myself, Jehovah, will become their God, and my servant David a chieftain in the midst of them. I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.” (Ezekiel 34:23, 24) Jesus Christ, the son of ancient King David, is that promised Shepherd. In the year 1919 C.E. Christendom discounted the value of his pastoral care and rejected him and his kingdom. Instead, she chose a man-made international organization for world peace and security, the League of Nations, the successor to which, the United Nations, has 132 member nations in 1972. She has reaped the consequences of this.

52. What consequences has Christendom reaped from rejecting the Messianic Shepherd and his leadership?

⁵² What consequences? A crop of ambitious, self-exalting governmental shepherds, together with their religious associates. Through the prophet Zechariah Jehovah God illustrated such consequences: worldly shepherds as prefigured by “a useless shepherd,” a foolish, incompetent, worthless class of leaders. After all these decades of experience with such leaders since 1919 C.E., we can see how they conform to the type of shepherd that Jehovah God prophetically described, as recorded by Zechariah, who writes:

53. Whose implements was Zechariah told to take for himself, and how would the shepherd raised up carry on, and what would happen to him?

⁵³ “And Jehovah went on to say to me: ‘Take yet for yourself the implements of a useless shepherd. For here I am letting a shepherd rise up in the land. To the sheep being effaced he will give no attention. The young one he will not seek, and the broken sheep he will not heal. The one stationing herself he will not supply with food, and the flesh of the fat one he will eat, and the hoofs of the sheep he will tear off. Woe to my valueless shepherd, who is leaving the flock! A sword will be upon his arm and upon his right eye. His own arm will without fail dry up, and his own right eye will without fail grow dim.’”​—Zechariah 11:15-17.

54. The conditions in the nations today prove that the people have what kind of “shepherds,” and why have such leaders been allowed to rise up?

⁵⁴ Are not the people today, even those of Christendom, not to speak of those of heathendom, like sheep effaced or lost out of the picture, broken and unhealed, hungry or threatened with world famine, fed upon by corrupt, graft-taking, parasitical valueless shepherds, who devour them even to their “hoofs” or who lead them over ways so rough as to tear their “hoofs”? The conditions in the nations, both so-called Christian and pagan, give eloquent answer to that question. How much longer can the “sheep” keep going? But this is the consequence of refusing Jehovah’s Messianic Shepherd. Since they have chosen it that way, he has let a useless, valueless, hurtful shepherd class rise up in the land even of Christendom.

55. Why did Zechariah, though taking for himself the implements of a useless shepherd, not suffer the woe that Jehovah pronounced against a valueless shepherd of that kind?

⁵⁵ The prophet Zechariah was told to illustrate the rising up of such a “useless shepherd” class in our time, as well as in the time of Jesus Christ and his apostles in the first century C.E. Zechariah did not himself become such a useless, foolish shepherd; he was merely told to take the implements or equipment of a shepherd and picture the presence and faulty conduct of such kind of shepherd. Consequently, Zechariah did not suffer the woe that Jehovah pronounced upon such a delinquent, valueless, heartless shepherd.

56. How has a “sword” been upon the “arm” and the “right eye” of such a “valueless shepherd” class?

⁵⁶ The whole world of mankind may expect no relief or deliverance from such governmental shepherds of human choice and appointment. Jehovah’s executional sword of authority is against such shepherd rulers, who themselves have long borne the “sword” of executional power. (Romans 13:4; Acts 12:1, 2) Because of not having Jehovah’s blessing in this their “time of the end,” their “arm” of power and ability is already withering up; their “right eye,” their best eye for discerning remedies and for governmental oversight, grows dimmer and dimmer. But in the world’s coming “great tribulation” Jehovah will destroy that “useless shepherd” class, eyes, arms and all.

[Footnotes]

“‘They have enthroned a war devil,’ he said, ‘in the place of God. The churches do not take themselves seriously. They are satisfied to be a mere item of the social organization and to defend their countries and rulers​—just or unjust. The church is muzzled and throttled into submission. It is like a dumb dog, old and toothless, that can no longer bite.

“‘Many of us expected the Socialist power to avert such a war as this, and were bitterly disappointed in the Socialists of Europe when they failed to do so. But we never looked to the churches, mosques and synagogues to prevent war. None of us expected such a thing from them, and we know what would happen to any leader of the Church of England who would dare raise his voice against his country’s part in the present strife.

“‘Franz Josef goes through the empty form of washing the feet of a dozen pilgrims every Easter and the church is satisfied with him. The Czar is the head of his church on Sunday and the head of his army during the week.

“‘And when the nations were preparing for this war they never consulted the churches because they knew that just as they relied upon their ambulance corps and their commissaries they could rely upon the churches to uphold them.

“‘It would be better for missionaries to teach Christianity at home first.’

“The rabbi concluded:

“‘Our souls are wounded when we read of the destruction of cathedrals at Rheims and elsewhere, yet these cathedrals were destroyed long ago and it is only their outer walls that have now fallen.

“‘War gods, money gods and power gods have been destroying these edifices century after century.’”​—New York American, October 12, 1914, page 4.

Chapter 19

The Kingdom Withstands International Assault

1. By what force uncontrolled by scientists has the pronouncement from beyond outer space been communicated to us, being made available to most of us also by what means?

INTERNATIONAL communications​—by cablegram, by telegram, by telephone, by radio, by television—​have carried the pronouncements of shepherdlike rulers to the ends of the earth. The seeming importance of such pronouncements made them deserving of such widespread newscasting. But, by a force that the scientists of this twentieth century have been unable to harness, a pronouncement of the highest importance has been communicated from beyond outer space to our earth. That high rating of this pronouncement is not too high, for it is the pronouncement of the Creator of earth and heaven, and it has been communicated by means of his invisible active force, namely, his holy spirit. Also, by means of hundreds of millions of printed copies of the Holy Bible, in hundreds of languages, that pronouncement has been made available for consultation by the vast majority of the population of the earth. As we read this pronouncement bearing the name of the Creator, let us judge for ourselves whether it is of international importance now:

2. According to that pronouncement, what will Jehovah make Jerusalem resemble to the nations, and like what will He make his people to the attacking nations?

² “A pronouncement: ‘The word of Jehovah concerning Israel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, the One who is stretching out the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth and forming the spirit of man inside him. ‘Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem. And it must occur in that day that I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples. All those lifting it will without fail get severe scratches for themselves; and against her all the nations of the earth will certainly be gathered. In that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘I shall strike every horse with bewilderment and its rider with madness; and upon the house of Judah I shall open my eyes, and every horse of the peoples I shall strike with loss of sight. And the sheiks of Judah will have to say in their heart, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me by Jehovah of armies their God.” In that day I shall make the sheiks of Judah like a fire pot among trees and like a fiery torch in a row of newly cut grain, and they must devour on the right hand and on the left all the peoples round about; and Jerusalem must yet be inhabited in her own place, in Jerusalem.’”

3, 4. Why have the natural, circumcised Jews been unable to come up with an explanation of Zechariah 12:1-6 that applies to the history of their nation?

³ Those words of Zechariah 12:1-6 are a puzzle to the natural circumcised Jews of today. They have tried to find a fulfillment of those prophetic words in the ancient history of their nation between the time of this “pronouncement” in the sixth century before our Common Era (about 518 B.C.E.) and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions in the year 70 C.E. But they have been unable to come up with anything authentic in verification of the prophecy. Why not? It is because the fulfillment of the “pronouncement” reaches its culmination or climax in an Israel and Jerusalem of a higher order than that of natural, fleshly Israel and earthly Jerusalem. Thus when the earthly Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 70 C.E. there was a Jerusalem that then remained. Not an earthly one, of course. It was the one of which the writer of Hebrews 12:22-24 speaks. Although writing about 61 C.E., about nine years before earthly Jerusalem was demolished in 70 C.E., he writes to Christianized Hebrews:

⁴ “But you have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, in general assembly, and the congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens, and God the Judge of all, and the spiritual lives of righteous ones who have been made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.”

5. What was the “congregation of the firstborn” to which those Christianized Hebrews had approached by about 61 C.E., and what city did this “congregation” have?

⁵ “The congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens” to which those Hebrew Christians had approached was not the congregation of natural, fleshly Israel, of which they had been a part until their conversion to Christianity. Rather, it was the “congregation” of spiritual Israel and it had been brought into the “new covenant” that Jesus the mediator had validated with his own “blood of sprinkling” that speaks in a better way than did the blood of Abel the first martyr of Jehovah. In a perfect match with these facts, this spiritual Israel had a higher Jerusalem, the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.”

6. What did earthly Jerusalem as Jehovah’s throne city picture, and when and to what was there a transfer of the thing thus pictured?

⁶ The earthly Jerusalem was where the line of kings in David’s royal family had had its throne, which was called “Jehovah’s throne” because the occupant thereof represented Jehovah God who was the real and invisible King of Israel. Since Jehovah had covenanted with King David for an everlasting kingdom with a permanent heir of him in the throne, Jerusalem as the throne city stood for the God-given right to a kingdom in the hands of a descendant of King David. (1 Chronicles 29:23; 2 Samuel 7:14-16) Jesus Christ, “son of David, son of Abraham,” was that Permanent Heir. Consequently, when Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, made his ascent to heaven and appeared in God’s presence and sat down at his right hand, his heirship and his unforfeited right to the kingdom went along with him. Thus that Kingdom right was transferred from the earthly Jerusalem to the “heavenly Jerusalem” in the year 33 C.E.​—Acts 2:29-36; Psalm 110:1, 2; Hebrews 10:12, 13.

7. In view of the overturning of the Davidic kingdom in earthly Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., when was it that Jehovah made Jerusalem a “bowl causing reeling to all the peoples” (Zechariah 12:2)?

⁷ In the year 607 B.C.E. the Babylonians overturned the kingdom of David at earthly Jerusalem, and the kingdom was to become no one else’s “until he comes who has the legal right,” at which time God would give it to that one. (Ezekiel 21:25-27) When did that one with the “legal right” come and receive the kingdom from Jehovah the great Theocrat? It was in 1914 C.E., at the end of the Gentile Times about October 4/5 (Tishri 15). Then Jehovah enthroned his Son Jesus Christ in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Then, too, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, 2 Jehovah sent the rod of Christ’s strength out of the heavenly Mount Zion, saying: “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” By that act and at that time the Great Creator of heaven and earth carried out his pronouncement and made Jerusalem, the “heavenly Jerusalem,” to be a “bowl causing reeling to all the peoples.”​—Zechariah 12:1, 2; Revelation 11:15.

8. (a) When King David made Jerusalem his throne city, what did the Philistines try to do, and with what result? (b) When and how did notice begin to be served on Christendom as regards Christ’s enthronement at the end of the Gentile Times?

⁸ Two thousand nine hundred and eighty-three years before that, King David had captured earthly Jerusalem and made it his capital city. On hearing that, his bitter enemies the Philistines came up against Jerusalem and tried to unseat David. Two successive miraculous defeats sent the assailants reeling back to Philistia. (2 Samuel 5:17-25; Psalm 2:1-6) What, then, do we find in the case of the “heavenly Jerusalem” with its newly enthroned King Jesus Christ, the Permanent Heir of David? For decades prior to 1914 C.E., even since the year 1876 C.E., the nations and peoples of the world had been notified that the Gentile Times would close in that year.a Dedicated, baptized Christians, like Charles Taze Russell who became president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, were used to serve this notice, especially upon the nations of Christendom. These professed Christian nations spurned the notification and launched their first world war July 28, 1914.

9. During World War I, how did those embattled nations gather around “heavenly Jerusalem” as around a drinking “bowl” for their pleasure?

⁹ During this war the embattled nations took advantage of martial law and wartime hysteria and nationalistic fervor to persecute these dedicated, baptized, spirit-anointed Christians who had served notification upon them and who had taken their stand for Jehovah’s established Messianic kingdom. Thus the nations gathered around them as around a drinking bowl, to take draughts of pleasure and glee at venting their opposition to God’s Kingdom representatives. As these dedicated, anointed Christians were part of the “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens,” those nations were, in effect, gathered around the “heavenly Jerusalem” as around a drinking “bowl.” For a time those nations did experience great exhilaration, as foretold in Revelation 11:7-10.

10, 11. How, after World War I, did “heavenly Jerusalem” come to be under siege by the nations, and were these also “against Judah”?

¹⁰ After World War I ended on November 11, 1918, the worldly nations did not cease their hostility to God’s established Messianic kingdom as set up in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” In the following years they adopted the League of Nations as a substitute for God’s heavenly kingdom. They thus began a figurative siege of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” This siege expressed itself in the nations’ opposition and persecution against the anointed remnant of the “congregation of the firstborn” who proclaimed the Messianic kingdom of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Inasmuch as these disciples of Jesus Christ upheld him as “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David,” they were spiritual Judeans, or spiritually of the tribe of Judah. So, along with the heavenly Jerusalem, these spiritual Judeans were under siege by the anti-Kingdom nations. It was just as it had been foretold, in Zechariah 12:2:

¹¹ “Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem.” (NW) “Lo, I am about to make Jerusalem an intoxicating bowl unto all the peoples around. Moreover, the cities of Judah will be under siege along with Jerusalem.” (AT) “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a fearful place to all the people round about her, also there shall be a siege both against Judah together with Jerusalem.” (Lamsa) “Lo, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the peoples round about, and also against Judah it is, in the siege against Jerusalem.”​—Yg.

12. How did the spiritual Judeans manifest a different spirit from what they had shown during World War I, thus taking what apostolic stand?

¹² Whereas in 1919 C.E. the worldly nations adopted the League of Nations as an international organization for world peace and security, the anointed remnant of the spiritual Judah started proclaiming as never before the good news of the kingdom of the “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.” So from then on the worldly nations began laying siege against this spiritual Judah on earth, prolonging and persisting in their endeavors to overpower the resistance and nonconformity of these spiritual Judeans. Quite differently from their general course of action during World War I, these spiritual Judeans refused to be put in fear by the nations. They discerned their commission from the Most High God more clearly than previously, and they chose the apostolic course: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) They stuck to this course even amid World War II. They stuck to an absolute Christian neutrality toward the international controversies, such as they had openly declared on November 1, 1939. The nations were quite stunned at the strictly neutral stand of these Christian witnesses of Jehovah.​—See The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, as of November 1, 1939, pages 323-333.

13. By what course have the nations got “severe scratches for themselves,” and why?

¹³ The intransigent stand of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses for neutrality, their courageous resort to the legal courts of the land to maintain their civil rights, their steadily increasing preaching of the good news of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom, all this has sent the nations reeling. The Kingdom right, as represented by the “heavenly Jerusalem,” has become a “burdensome stone” to the nations. For trying to lift it out of the way of their ambitious worldly schemes for global domination by tampering with the Kingdom preachers, the meddling nations have got “severe scratches for themselves.” No satisfaction for themselves, but smarting pains of humiliating failure. Their reputations have been hurt. They cannot remove or nullify the Kingdom’s right to be preached, nor can they silence the remnant who obey Jehovah’s command to preach it world wide.

14. How has Jehovah fulfilled even already his pronouncement regarding the enemy horses and their riders, and upon whom does he open his eyes, and why?

¹⁴ Already, in a figurative way, Jehovah of armies has done according to His pronouncement. He has bewildered those who fight against the spiritual Judeans, the ambassadors for His kingdom. The riders of the war machine have been made to act madly, as in the case of frustrated dictators who have become blind with fury. Their war strategists know no more what direction to take, as if for loss of sight. But Jehovah opens his eyes and keeps them open in order to direct the strategy of the spiritual “house of Judah.”

15. How have the spiritual Judean sheiks been inflammatory “like a fire pot among trees and like a fiery torch in a row of newly cut grain,” to the right and to the left?

¹⁵ As for the “sheiks of Judah,” spiritually speaking, the governing body of the “house of Judah” and the overseers of the congregations of the spiritual Judeans, Jehovah fills these with a fiery zeal in behalf of the earthly interests of the Kingdom of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” “Like a fire pot among trees and like a fiery torch in a row of newly cut grain,” they set things aflame in a spiritual way, causing great religious discussions and controversies to flare up and consuming the influence of many shepherd rulers so that they are exposed as “fighters actually against God” and many of their “sheep” turn away to God’s kingdom. To the right and to the left this occurs among the peoples. In consequence of this fiery activity and positiveness of these “sheiks of Judah,” the spiritual Judeans keep remaining in their God-given spiritual estate, inhabiting it with increased numbers. They do not abandon the cause of the “heavenly Jerusalem.”

16. The “sheiks of Judah” acknowledge that their strength to do this under siege comes from what source, and what does that source employ in their behalf?

¹⁶ It is not in their own strength that these “sheiks of Judah” and their fellow Judeans accomplish this spiritually devastating work among those who besiege hostilely the cause of God’s reigning kingdom. In their hearts of appreciation they confess that the strength to do this under siege by all the world comes from a superhuman, supernatural source. It comes from the “heavenly Jerusalem,” where the enthroned King Jesus Christ reigns and has gone forth subduing among his enemies. He has associated with him the holy angels. “Are they not all spirits for public service, sent forth to minister for those who are going to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:13, 14; Matthew 25:31) Those anointed Christians who were approaching the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem” and who ended their earthly course in death and were resurrected to life and immortality in the heavens, these also could afford invisible strength to the courageous, energetic “sheiks of Judah” and fellow Judeans on earth. (Revelation 2:26-29) Behind all this assistance from heavenly Jerusalem is “Jehovah of armies their God.”

ANNIHILATION IN STORE FOR ATTACKING NATIONS

17, 18. (a) Why will the nations not be able to crown their long siege with victory? (b) According to his pronouncement, what will Jehovah do to those nations coming against “Jerusalem”?

¹⁷ The worldly nations cannot crown with victory their long, persistent siege against God’s kingdom and those who serve as its ambassadors throughout the earth. The Almighty God will give these spiritual Judeans renewed powers of endurance to withstand the anti-Kingdom siege, but he will weaken and finally obliterate the God-defying besiegers. This is the significance of the further words of the divine “pronouncement,” in Zechariah 12:7-9:

¹⁸ “And Jehovah will certainly save the tents of Judah first, to the end that the beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not become too great over Judah. In that day Jehovah will be a defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the one that is stumbling among them must become in that day like David, and the house of David like God [or, ‘godlike ones’], like Jehovah’s angel before them. And it must occur in that day that I shall seek to annihilate all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem.”

19. (a) What is indicated by the expression “the tents of Judah”? (b) Why will the “beauty” of others involved not become “too great over Judah”?

¹⁹ That expression “the tents of Judah” indicates that the spiritual Judeans are not withdrawn behind the protective walls of cities but are out in the open field, fearlessly defending the interests of the Messianic kingdom as represented by Jerusalem, the throne city. Reasonably, then, before the attackers could come directly against the city, they would have to clear away all the “tents of Judah” that are ringed about the city in its defense. That is why Jehovah of armies has to save the “tents of Judah” first, because these are the first and direct target of attack. For that reason they will be able to boast of Jehovah’s salvation of them the same as will the inhabitants of the “heavenly Jerusalem,” the Kingdom location. These “tents of Judah” will have the beauty of Jehovah’s salvation just the same as the “house of David” represented by the royal Son of David, Jesus Christ, and the same as the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” the resurrected joint heirs of the Messianic kingdom, Christ’s already resurrected and glorified disciples.​—Romans 8:15-17; 2 Timothy 2:11, 12.

20. (a) How has Jehovah made the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” to be like David, and David’s house to be like Jehovah’s angel? (b) How has Jehovah defended the “inhabitants of Jerusalem”?

²⁰ If, in the case of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Jehovah defends them and keeps them from stumbling to a fall in that he makes them strong and courageous like David the fighting king, he will do likewise with the spiritual Judeans in their “tents” out in the field. The historical record that the anointed remnant of spiritual Judeans has made for itself till now shows that He has done this. And he will continue to do this in the future, to the full carrying out of his promise. Also, because of the larger responsibility that is involved, Jehovah has done still more for the “house of David,” which “house” is represented by the Permanent Heir of David, Jesus Christ. Jehovah has made him “like God, like Jehovah’s angel before them.” No, not like Jehovah himself, but like Jehovah’s “angel,” who led the sons of Israel out of slavery in Egypt in 1513 B.C.E. (Exodus 14:19; 23:20, 23) Jehovah of armies has already defended the inhabitants of the “heavenly Jerusalem” by authorizing his reigning King Jesus Christ to cast Satan the Devil, “the god of this system of things,” out of heaven and to keep him out.​—Revelation 12:7-13; 2 Corinthians 4:4.

21. (a) In harmony with the house of David’s acting like Jehovah’s angel, what is one of the appropriate titles of the Representative of that “house”? (b) How long will the enemy keep up the siege of Jerusalem, and why till then?

²¹ So the godlike Son of David, Jesus Christ, acts like Jehovah’s angel in behalf of spiritual Judeans in their “tents” on earth. Appropriately one of the names by which he has been called is Mighty God. (Isaiah 9:6, 7) How, then, could all the nations of this world, backed by Satan the Devil, triumph against him and against the “tents of Judah” before whom he serves as Jehovah’s angel? By force of circumstances their siege of the Messianic kingdom is bound to fail. In their lust for world domination they will never lift the siege and withdraw in admission of defeat or failure. They will keep up the siege down to the last!

22. (a) Why will Jehovah not have to look far when seeking to annihilate the nations? (b) When will be the occasion for him to annihilate them?

²² Will Jehovah of armies have to seek far in that day when seeking to “annihilate all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem”? By no means! By their persistent opposition to his Messianic kingdom and their support of the man-made international organization for world peace and security and their harassment and persecution of the spiritual Judeans, those nations are piling up a condemnatory record against themselves. The Supreme Judge of all is aware of the account that has to be settled in full measure against them. When their final attack upon the “tents of Judah” takes place, producing the world situation figuratively called Har–Magedon, they will fill up their allowed account to the full.

23. To what will Jehovah reduce those nations, and by means of whom, and with “beauty” for whom?

²³ On examining that account, the searching Jehovah of armies will find every justification for him to annihilate those nations coming against the Kingdom of his “heavenly Jerusalem.” By means of his reigning King, who is “like God, like Jehovah’s angel,” he will reduce those nations absolutely to nothing. (Revelation 16:13-16) O with what “beauty” that will crown the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” and the “tents of Judah”!

THE ONE “PIERCED THROUGH” WHO BECAME KING

24, 25. (a) Will there be a wailing for those annihilated nations? (b) A wailing over whom is it that Jehovah foretells as being outstanding?

²⁴ There will be no wailing and lamentation over those presumptuous nations whom Jehovah of armies annihilates in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. But there was wailing and lamentation at a mournful event that paved the way for the “beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem” in that glorious day of divine salvation. As the “pronouncement” of Jehovah the Creator of heaven and earth continues on, we learn what that event was, for we hear Him say:

²⁵ “And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of favor and entreaties, and they will certainly look to the One whom they pierced through, and they will certainly wail over Him as in the wailing over an only son; and there will be a bitter lamentation over him as when there is bitter lamentation over the firstborn son. In that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be great, like the wailing of Hadadrimmon in the valley plain of Megiddo. And the land will certainly wail, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their women by themselves; all the families that are left remaining, each family by itself, and their women by themselves.”​—Zechariah 12:10-14; NW; JB; Mo; RS; AT.

26. To the question of who was the one whom they pierced through, we turn to what apostle’s writing for the answer, and how does he answer our question?

²⁶ Who is that “One whomb they pierced through” and to whom “they will certainly look”? Cutting through the entanglement of human guesses, we go direct to the inspired answer furnished by the One who made this prophetic “pronouncement.” From the record written down by the Galilean John, who was an eyewitness of the impalement of Jesus Christ between two impaled evildoers on Friday, Nisan 14, 33 C.E., we quote these inspired words:

Then the Jews, since it was Preparation, in order that the bodies might not remain upon the torture stakes on the Sabbath, (for the day of that Sabbath was a great one,) requested Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken away. The soldiers came, therefore, and broke the legs of the first man and those of the other man that had been impaled with him. But on coming to Jesus, as they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Yet one of the soldiers jabbed his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he that has seen it has borne witness, and his witness is true, and that man knows he tells true things, in order that you also may believe. In fact, these things took place in order for the scripture to be fulfilled: “Not a bone of his will be crushed.” And, again, a different scripture says: “They will look to the One whom they pierced.”​—John 19:31-37.

27. In his writings, what other connections does John make of Jesus with that one “pierced through”?

²⁷ There is also another connecting of this Jesus Christ with the ‘piercing through’ when the same apostle John writes:

To him that loves us and that loosed us from our sins by means of his own blood​—and he made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—​yes, to him be the glory and the might forever. Amen.

Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him. Yes, Amen.​—Revelation 1:5-7.

28. What does the medical doctor Luke write, to indicate that Jesus was “pierced through” after, not before, he died?

²⁸ Thus the piercing of Jesus’ side occurred sometime after he had expired, not before, concerning which Doctor Luke writes:

Well, by now it was about the sixth hour [12 o’clock noon], and yet a darkness fell over all the earth until the ninth hour [3 o’clock in the afternoon], because the sunlight failed; then the curtain of the sanctuary was rent down the middle. And Jesus called with a loud voice and said: “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” When he had said this, he expired. Because of seeing what occurred the army officer [centurion] began to glorify God, saying: “Really this man was righteous.” And all the crowds that were gathered together there for this spectacle, when they beheld the things that occurred, began to return, beating their breasts. Moreover, all those acquainted with him were standing at a distance. Also, women, who together had followed him from Galilee, were standing beholding these things.”​—Luke 23:44-49; also, Mark 15:33-41.

29. How, as in Thomas’ case, did that pierced side of Jesus enter into the proof that he had been resurrected from the dead?

²⁹ The pierced side of Jesus Christ was also an important item that entered into the proof that Jesus was later raised from the dead. The apostle Thomas, who did not get to see Jesus on the day of his resurrection (Sunday, Nisan 16, 33 C.E.), said to those who had seen him materialized in the flesh that day: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will certainly not believe.” A week later, Jesus again materialized in flesh, in a body like that of his impalement, and said to Thomas: “Take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop being unbelieving but become believing.”​—John 20:24-27.

30. (a) How was the wailing by Jesus’ disciples of greater seriousness than the “wailing of Hadadrimmon in the valley plain of Megiddo”? (b) What more was needed than the mere wailing in grief in order for the “spirit of favor and entreaties” to be poured out on them?

³⁰ In fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10-14, the faithful apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ must have wailed and lamented, there at earthly Jerusalem. Their lamenting was over the death of the “only-begotten Son” of God, “the firstborn of all creation,” “the beginning of the creation by God.” (John 3:16; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) So the lamenting over him was of greater seriousness than the previous “wailing of Hadadrimmon in the valley plain of Megiddo.” (Zechariah 12:11; compare 2 Kings 23:28-30; 2 Chronicles 35:20-25.) Jehovah did pour out upon those faithful disciples the “spirit of favor and entreaties.” Especially so, since those disciples “were hoping that this man was the one destined to deliver Israel.” (Luke 24:21) But, in order to gain divine favor, more than mere grief must be expressed in such wailing and bitter lamentation. There must be belief in the one who was pierced through and belief in the value of his sacrificial death. On the basis of such belief or faith, divine favor can be extended to the grieved one and then his entreaties due to faith will be answered.

31, 32. (a) To receive the “spirit of favor and entreaties,” how must one look at him who was pierced through, even though one was of “the house of David”? (b) Even if of the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” what would one have to do besides wail in order to receive the “spirit of favor and entreaties”?

³¹ To prove worthy of receiving that divine “spirit of favor and entreaties” a person must look with eyes of faith, “look to the One whom they pierced through.” A person might be of “the house of David,” but, just one’s being of that royal rank according to fleshly descent by no means guarantees that one will be with the Messiah in the heavenly kingdom as one of his joint heirs.

³² A person might be one of the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” on earth; but his being of the earthly capital city of King David by no means guarantees him a place in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Such a person should grieve because of any community responsibility that may be attaching to him for the death and piercing through of the Messiah Jesus. So the wailing and bitter lamentation must include sorrow over the fact that the Messiah had to die over our sins and must also include repentance over such sins. Then Messiah’s death will be of benefit to the one lamenting and he will receive the “spirit of favor and entreaties.”

33. (a) How did this rule apply also to a person even though he was of “the house of Levi,” or the “family of the Shimeites”? (b) Or, if one was of the “family of the house of Nathan,” as Jesus’ mother Mary was?

³³ This would apply also to a person who, according to the flesh, was of the “house of Levi.” Although as a Levite he served at the earthly temple in Jerusalem, with its altar of animal sacrifices, he still needed the perfect human sacrifice of the One pierced through. The “house of Levi” also included the “family of the Shimeites.” (Exodus 6:16, 17; Numbers 3:17-21) So these also needed a sacrifice able to ransom sinful human creatures. The “family of the house of Nathan” belonged to the royal family of David. (2 Samuel 5:13, 14) Mary the earthly mother of Jesus Christ was born into the line of descent of this Nathan the son of David. (Luke 3:23-31) Despite their royal connections according to the flesh, those of this family needed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and that he was “pierced through” in order to fulfill divine prophecy and to prove worthy of the heavenly kingdom.

34. (a) From what standpoint must everyone, regardless of family, house, or sex, wail and lament over the pierced one? (b) How must we today do so in order to receive the “spirit of favor and entreaties”?

³⁴ Everybody, no matter of what family or house, needed to wail and lament in repentant grief over the need for the Messiah to die as a ransom sacrifice for sins. Woman as well as man needed to do so. That is why the prophecy repeatedly says that there must be wailing on the part of “their women by themselves.” (Zechariah 12:12-14) Likewise each one of us today must look with repentance and in faith to Messiah Jesus, the One whom the enemies of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom were permitted to ‘pierce through.’ If we do so, we shall receive the “spirit of favor and entreaties.”

35. When are our tears of wailing and lamentation over the ‘piercing through’ of the Messiah wiped away?

³⁵ Our tears of wailing and lamentation are wiped away when we discern, also, that the Messiah Jesus was “pierced through” for the vindication of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. His finally being “pierced through” proved that he had maintained his perfect integrity to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah to the death. As a reward he was honored with being enthroned as Messianic King in heaven.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 20

A “Third Part” Preserved in a Purged Land

1. Has Christendom failed in producing the kind of land that honest-hearted people want, and upon whose promise to produce the desired Paradise must we depend today?

WHAT decent, honest-hearted, righteously disposed people want today is a land in which the inhabitants live clean lives and there is no religious hypocrisy or fraud and deception. Christendom, after trying out her hundreds of varieties of so-called Christian religions, has failed to produce such a land. All hope has now been lost that she will ever be able to do so. Not one land can she set forth as her showpiece to prove that she can purge out wickedness and religious uncleanness. She has nowhere brought about a spiritual paradise among her hundreds of millions of church members. If the Creator of heaven and earth were to depend upon her to bring about a purged earth with pure, undefiled religion, it would never come about. But the Almighty God will yet bring this about, in his way, by means of his own theocratic organization. His promise to do so still stands sure, for all right-minded people to trust in today.

2. After telling of the wailing over the one “pierced through,” what does Jehovah tell of being opened up for sin and for an abhorrent thing?

² It is most interesting to examine how God illustrates his purpose to do this remarkable thing. In his “pronouncement” he has just finished speaking about the wailing and bitter lamentation in his land over the piercing through of the Messiah to whom the inhabitants of the land had pinned their hopes. (Zechariah 12:1, 10-14) Immediately following upon this, he proceeds to say: “In that day there will come to be a well opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for an abhorrent thing.”​—Zechariah 13:1.

3. What proves whether Christendom has availed herself of that “well” that was opened up for sin and for an abhorrent thing?

³ Do we today see ‘sin and an abhorrent thing’ prevailing throughout the earth, even in Christendom? If we do, then it is evident that Christendom has not availed herself of that “well” that was to be opened “in that day.” We are in “that day” now, are we not? Here the word “day” does not refer to a twenty-four-hour day. How can we determine whether we are in that favored “day”? This we can do by considering all the circumstances involved.

4. (a) Who opens that “well,” to provide water for what purpose? (b) According to the Scriptures, what are some of the abhorrent things that do not belong in God’s temple?

⁴ That “day” is prominently marked by a “well.” This well was opened by Jehovah, for he himself is the One that digs it by means of his loving provisions. He sees to it that it is filled with pure water. What is the stated purpose of this water? Not that of drinking in order to quench thirst, but that of purification. The “well” with its water is opened “for sin and for an abhorrent thing.” Among things abhorrent to God is the one described in Leviticus 20:21: “And where a man takes his brother’s wife, it is something abhorrent. It is the nakedness of his brother that he has laid bare. They should become childless.” An abhorrent or impure thing has no place in God’s temple. (2 Chronicles 29:3-5) An abhorrent thing is to be thrown away, even if it involves silver and gold. (Ezekiel 7:19) By acting outrageously before God, one can make oneself an “abhorrent thing.” (Lamentations 1:8) The Israelite who defiled himself by touching a dead corpse was considered as something abhorrent and as not to be touched until after he had been cleansed with the water mixed with the ashes of a sacrificed red cow.​—Numbers 19:2-22.

5. How had the inhabitants of the land made it before the Israelites took possession of it, and why did Jehovah open up a “well for sin and for an abhorrent thing” in behalf of the remnant that had been restored there?

⁵ Before the Israelites had taken possession of the land of Canaan, the land had been made abhorrent, filthy, impure, “because of the impurity of the peoples of the lands, because of their detestable things with which they have filled it from end to end by their uncleanness.” (Ezra 9:11) But after the Israelites themselves had occupied the land for some time, they too made the land abhorrent, filthy, impure, so that Jehovah could say: “The house of Israel were dwelling upon their soil, and they kept making it unclean with their way and with their dealings. Like the uncleanness of menstruation their way has become before me.” (Ezekiel 36:16, 17; Leviticus 15:19-33) Rightly, then, Jehovah did not want the land of his restored remnant to become again an abhorrent land or to continue to be such. That is why he opened up this “well” to cleanse away sin or an abhorrent thing.

6. As this was after the restoration from Babylon, why did the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” need such a well for cleansing? (b) For how many, really, was the “well” meant, and how could these avail themselves of it?

⁶ So the “well” was opened “to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” But let us not lose from sight that these were of the remnant of Israelites who were liberated from Babylon and who returned to the land of Judah to rebuild the temple of their God at Jerusalem. Consequently, although there was among them a “house of David,” they did not have a king of the lineage of King David sitting on a royal throne at Jerusalem. Zerubbabel, who had come from Babylon, was of the “house of David” but was merely appointed by King Cyrus of Persia to be governor of Judah. (Zechariah 4:6-10; Matthew 1:6-13) The Messiah had yet to come for them to get a king of the “house of David.” Naturally, then, as here meant, the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” needed cleansing from “sin” and any “abhorrent thing.” They needed that “well” to be opened. In fact, the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” represented their whole nation. The whole nation needed that “well” with its cleansing water, and they could avail themselves of this divine provision when they came up to Jerusalem for their annual festivals.

7. When was that “well” opened up to the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” and with what results at the start?

⁷ When was that “well” opened to the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” and to the nation whom these represented? This was after the One whom they “pierced through” to the death on the impalement stake outside the walls of Jerusalem on Passover Day of 33 C.E. was resurrected from the dead. This enabled him to ascend to heaven and enter into the presence of Jehovah God and present to him the sin-atoning value of his shed blood. Thereafter on the festival day of Pentecost, Sivan 6 of 33 C.E., Jehovah God used the sin-atoning Messiah, Jesus Christ, to pour out the holy spirit upon his faithful disciples in Jerusalem, about 120 of them, to begin with. Later, that same day, about three thousand Jews confessed their guilt at having shared in the killing of the Messiah, Jesus, and they got baptized in water to become his disciples and they, too, were baptized with the holy spirit.​—Acts 1:2-5, 15; 2:1-36.

8, 9. (a) What did Peter’s counsel to those thousands of conscience-stricken Jews on the day of Pentecost mean, as respects the “well”? (b) What assurance of this did Peter give later to Jews at the temple?

⁸ When, now, the Christian apostle Peter said to those thousands of conscience-stricken Jews, “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit,” what did that mean? (Acts 2:37, 38) It meant that it was “that day” foretold in Zechariah 13:1. It meant that the “well” had been opened “to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for an abhorrent thing.” Could there have been an “abhorrent thing” greater than that of instigating and sharing in the violent death of the Messiah, Jesus? Likely quite a number of Jews among those thousands of Jews had looked upon the impaled body of Jesus Christ when it was “pierced through” by the spear of the Roman soldier guard. (John 19:37) But even such an “abhorrent thing” the water from that opened “well” could cleanse away. Peter gave assurance of this when he later said to Jews at the temple in Jerusalem:

⁹ “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers also did. But in this way God has fulfilled the things he announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets [including Zechariah 12:10], that his Christ would suffer. Repent, therefore, and turn around so as to get your sins blotted out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the person of Jehovah and that he may send forth the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.”​—Acts 3:17-20.

10. According to Paul, how many natural Jews availed themselves of that “well,” and how long was Jerusalem with her “house of David” seemingly the literal location of that “well”?

¹⁰ That was in the year 33 C.E., but even down to the year 56 C.E. the apostle Paul under inspiration pointed out that only a remnant of the natural, circumcised Jews looked to the “pierced through” Messiah, Jesus, in faith and availed themselves of the “well” of cleansing waters: “At the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing due to undeserved kindness.” (Romans 11:5; 9:27, 28) In the year 70 C.E. Jewish Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman legions and she ceased to be available for an application of Zechariah 13:1 to her literally, and her “house of David” became lost to identification by means of genealogical records, for these became lost.

11. Parallelwise, when did a remnant of spiritual Israelites come upon the scene, and what did they appreciate as respects God’s anger toward them (Isaiah 12:1, 2)?

¹¹ However, there is a parallel fulfillment of Zechariah 13:1 to the remnant of spiritual Israelites, who have to do with the “heavenly Jerusalem,” the “city of the living God.” During the first world war of 1914-1918 C.E., the remnant of spiritual Israelites came under Babylonish bondage and proved to be guilty of spiritual shortcomings and uncleanness. In the year 1919 there came a liberation of them from the organization of Babylon the Great and her political, military paramours. Then they began to appreciate and discern the application of the words of Isaiah 12:1, 2: “And in that day you will be sure to say: ‘I shall thank you, O Jehovah, for although you got incensed at me, your anger gradually turned back, and you proceeded to comfort me. Look! God is my salvation. I shall trust and be in no dread; for Jah Jehovah is my strength and my might, and he came to be the salvation of me.’”a So now, as in Zechariah’s time, there was a restored remnant, liberated from Babylon the Great and devoting themselves to the building up of Jehovah’s pure worship at his spiritual temple.

12. (a) When was a “well” of purifying waters opened up to them, and why? (b) How was the prophecy of Ezekiel 36:24, 25 thus fulfilled?

¹² This restored anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites needed to be cleansed from all “sin” and any “abhorrent thing” that had attached to them during their bondage under Babylon the Great and her worldly paramours. As something suited to their spiritual needs then, the “well” of purifying water was opened up to them by the merciful Jehovah, in that liberation year of 1919 C.E. At once they began to avail themselves of the cleansing water of that “well.” Then, in a spiritual way, was fulfilled the divine promise in Ezekiel 36:24, 25: “And I will take you out of the nations and collect you together out of all the lands and bring you in upon your soil. And I will sprinkle upon you clean water, and you will become clean; from all your impurities and from all your dungy idols I shall cleanse you.” During their spiritual bondage in Babylon the Great, the remnant had touched the dead things of the war-mad world; and now it was as if Jehovah through Christ were sprinkling the repentant remnant with the “water for cleansing,” mixed with the ashes of the slaughtered red cow.​—Numbers 19:1-13.

13. Among those restored spiritual Israelites, who among them needed to be cleansed, to correspond with the “house of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” and why so?

¹³ This was required in the case of all the repentant, restored members of the remnant of spiritual Israel. There were none too high in importance or responsibility, resembling the “house of David,” nor any too ordinary or commonplace and numerous, resembling the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” to be excused from this cleansing by means of the water from the “well” of Jehovah’s provision. The general governing body of the remnant of spiritual Israel, and also the official elders as overseers of the local congregations of these spiritual Israelites needed to be cleansed just the same as did the dedicated, baptized members of their congregations. (Acts 20:17-28; 14:23; Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 4:14; Titus 1:5-9) There was a community uncleanness among them. In preaching, teaching and daily living they were obliged to be clean in their restored spiritual estate. In line with keeping themselves unspotted from this world, they were brought to the position of maintaining strict Christian neutrality toward the violent conflicts of the nations that heaped up dead corpses.​—James 1:27; John 15:18, 19; 17:14.

LOYALTY TO GOD TRANSCENDS FAMILY TIES

14, 15. (a) “That day” must be a time also for testing what quality toward Jehovah? (b) In Zechariah 13:2, 3, what guiding illustration of this did Jehovah give?

¹⁴ “That day” in which the “well” is opened up “for sin and for an abhorrent thing” is also a day for testing the degree of one’s loyalty to God. The remnant that was restored from Babylon in 537 B.C.E. was forewarned of this. In describing how loyal to Him his worshipers must be and would even be, the Sovereign Lord God proceeded to say further to his prophet Zechariah:

¹⁵ “‘And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, ‘that I shall cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will no more be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I shall cause to pass out of the land. And it must occur that in case a man should prophesy anymore, his father and his mother, the ones who caused his birth, must also say to him, “You will not live, because falsehood is what you have spoken in the name of Jehovah.” And his father and his mother, the ones who caused his birth, must pierce him through because of his prophesying.’”​—Zechariah 13:2, 3.

16. What is the “land” out of which Jehovah has cut off the “names of the idols,” and what has this resulted in among the spiritual Israelites of today?

¹⁶ As regards our time since the year 1919 C.E., Jehovah of armies is here speaking about the spiritual estate of his restored remnant of spiritual Israelites. Because this God, who requires exclusive devotion to himself, has caused the “names of the idols” to pass out of the “land” of their relationship with Him, they now refuse to worship the “wild beast” out of the sea and also the “image” of that wild beast. Or, if we say it plainly without the use of those Bible symbols of political institutions, the spiritual Israelites refuse to worship the political state as a whole on a world scale and also the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations. In this way they avoid suffering the divine penalty for carrying the “mark” of the “wild beast.” (Revelation 13:1-18; 14:9, 10) Because they have “approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem” and they are “enrolled in the heavens,” their “citizenship exists in the heavens.” (Hebrews 12:2, 23; Philippians 3:20) So they do not yield themselves to the delirium of earthly nationalism. They do not render any worshipful gestures or attitudes to nationalistic idols. Idol names are not remembered. The loyal spiritual Israelites praise the name of Jehovah as the true God, in heartfelt, full allegiance to Him.

17. In view of what warnings of Jesus Christ and the apostle John was it timely for Jehovah to cause false prophets to pass out of the “land”?

¹⁷ Jehovah has also caused the false prophets and “spirit of uncleanness” to pass out of the spiritual estate of his restored remnant. Jesus Christ forewarned us concerning this “conclusion of the system of things” that “false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones.” (Matthew 24:3, 4, 24, 25) The apostle John warned: “Beloved ones, do not believe every inspired expression [or, every spirit], but test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets have gone forth into the world.” (1 John 4:1) Accordingly, there would be need among the restored remnant of spiritual Israelites to guard against false prophets invading or rising up in the midst of their spiritual estate on earth.

18, 19. (a) What did Jehovah’s causing the false prophet to pass out of the land require the reinstated remnant of spiritual Israel to do? (b) What counsel of the apostle Peter concerning prophecy did they heed?

¹⁸ How, then, did Jehovah keep their “land” or spiritual estate pure in worship by fulfilling his promise: “Also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I shall cause to pass out of the land.”? (Zechariah 13:2) It was by causing any wrong understandings of the Bible prophecies that had been entertained before the remnant’s reinstatement in their “land” in 1919 C.E. to be corrected. The “time of the end,” the “conclusion of the system of things,” that began in 1914 at the end of the Gentile Times was God’s appointed time for the fulfillment of many prophecies. These could not be understood until they were just about to be fulfilled or after they had been fulfilled. So in the light of all that was taking place since 1914 the reinstated remnant looked anew into the prophecies that God had reserved for the “time of the end” for their fulfillment. (Daniel 12:4; Revelation 10:6, 7) This included a restudy of the books of Ezekiel and Revelation, an explanation of which had been attempted and published in July of 1917 in the book entitled “The Finished Mystery.” Thus the restored remnant heeded the words:

¹⁹ “We have the prophetic word made more sure; and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and a daystar rises, in your hearts. For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”​—2 Peter 1:19-21.

20. How, figuratively speaking, did fleshly parents pierce their son through for prophesying falsely?

²⁰ Any attempted interpretation of prophecy, if it proved to be incorrect in the light of historic events and the clearer understanding of the Bible, was corrected, regardless of who had offered the interpretation. Loyalty to God and to his inspired Word was the issue here to be met. So, as an illustration of the loyalty required, even if a fleshly son should offer a wrong interpretation of divine prophecy and should persist in it, like a false prophet, then his own fleshly parents in their loyalty to God would have nothing further to do with him on a religious basis. Christian parents could not do as under the Mosaic Law covenant, namely, have him put to death; but they could pronounce him spiritually dead to themselves in spite of their parenthood of him physically. In this way, figuratively speaking, they “must pierce him through because of his prophesying.” (Zechariah 13:3; compare Deuteronomy 13:1-5.) With their full consent, such a false prophet would be expelled, disfellowshiped, from the Christian congregation. By such loyalty on the part of all members of the restored remnant, the “prophet” of falsehood would be made to pass out of their “land.”

21. How, too, was the “spirit of uncleanness” made to pass out of their spiritual “land”?

²¹ Yes, too, the “spirit of uncleanness” would thus be made to pass out of their spiritual “land.” If that spirit were an inspired expression of uncleanness by a would-be prophet or was any tendency, trend, or inclination to uncleanness, it would be disapproved and resisted by the loyal ones. As a consequence any uncleanness as to religious teaching or as to moral behavior would be forced to pass out, under the driving force of God’s holy spirit. The God-given spiritual estate must be maintained as a “land” where clean, Scriptural living is carried on. Persons spiritually and morally unclean must be disfellowshiped therefrom.​—2 Corinthians 6:14 to 7:1; compare Deuteronomy 13:6-18.

RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY EXPOSED

22, 23. (a) How does Jehovah put the false prophets to shame? (b) How does Jehovah describe the false prophets trying to hide their reason for feeling shame?

²² Jehovah, the God of the true prophets, will put all false prophets to shame either by not fulfilling the false prediction of such self-assuming prophets or by having His own prophecies fulfilled in a way opposite to that predicted by the false prophets. False prophets will try to hide their reason for feeling shame by denying who they really are. They will try to avoid being killed or being pronounced spiritually dead by Jehovah’s loyal worshipers. He foretold this by having his true prophet Zechariah continue on to say:

²³ “And it must occur in that day that the prophets will become ashamed, each one of his vision when he prophesies; and they will not wear an official garment of hair for the purpose of deceiving. And he will certainly say, ‘I am no prophet. I am a man cultivating the soil, because an earthling man himself acquired me from my youth on.’ And one must say to him, ‘What are these wounds on your person between your hands?’ And he will have to say, ‘Those with which I was struck in the house of my intense lovers.’”​—Zechariah 13:4-6, NW; JB; NE; NAB; contrast Amos 7:14-17.

24. The scar-producing wounds on the deceptive prophet were admitted by him to be inflicted by whom, and what would this indicate as to loyalty to God in comparison with attachment to fleshly loved ones?

²⁴ Thus Jehovah foretold that his people, in their “land” of restoration, would be so well instructed with his Word and would be so loyal to Him and His true prophecies that they would refuse to be friends and intense lovers of any false prophet. If they did not kill him, then they would discipline him and strike him so hard in their indignation that visible wounds and scars would result. Such marks on his person, yes, on his breast which would be partly exposed, would betray his identity in spite of the fact that he had discarded official garments that he had assumed to wear as a bona fide prophet of Jehovah God. From whom had he got such scar-producing wounds? From his intense lovers, whether these were his own fleshly parents or his intimate associates. However, their intense loyalty to Jehovah as the God of true prophecy would be stronger than their till-then intense love for a deceptive prophet. They would place love of God and his inspired Word above personal friendships with fleshly relatives or associates. Such a course would cause “the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness” to pass out of the “land” of Jehovah’s repatriated people.

25. This course of supreme loyalty to Jehovah has been adopted by whom and since when, and how has this affected their spiritual “land”?

²⁵ This course of supreme loyalty to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has been the one adopted by the anointed remnant since 1919 C.E. This has resulted in the disfellowshiping or excommunicating of religious apostates or rebels from the theocratic organization that Jehovah the heavenly Theocrat has established among his obedient remnant. The loyal remnant have found out that it is not the mere “official garment of hair,” not a professional uniform or type of dress, that makes a true prophet of the one living and true God. That is why they have left Babylon the Great, including Christendom, with its distinctively garbed religious priests, preachers, monks and nuns. What makes a true prophet of Jehovah today is his true Christian personality as his identification and his loyal adherence to Jehovah’s Word and its prophecies. It is no wonder, then, that Jehovah’s witnesses while acting as ministers of God’s Word wear plain business suits or the regular attire of the common people. So the loyal remnant are willing to brush aside intense love for close associates and to inflict spiritual “wounds” upon these in disapproval and rejection of apostates. This has kept their theocratic “land” a spiritual realm of clean godly living.

STRIKING THE SHEPHERD CAUSES A SCATTERING

26. (a) As a prophet, Jesus Christ was struck and wounded for what reason? (b) How did Jehovah foretell this through the prophet Zechariah?

²⁶ Jehovah’s greatest prophet on earth was struck and wounded to the death, but this was for his proving to be a true prophet of the Most High God down to the end. (Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Acts 3:13-23) His violent death caused a short-time scattering of his disciples who were loyal to him. The true prophet Zechariah was used to foretell this, for God went on to say to him: “‘O sword, awake against my shepherd, even against the able-bodied man who is my associate,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies. ‘Strike the shepherd, and let those of the flock be scattered; and I shall certainly turn my hand back upon those who are insignificant.’”​—Zechariah 13:7.

27, 28. To avoid the mistake made by some modern Bible translators, whose application of Zechariah 13:7 will we correctly accept, and according to what record thereof?

²⁷ Certain modern Bible translators would apply those words to the “useless shepherd,” the “valueless shepherd,” by transferring the words of Zechariah 13:7-9 and attaching them to Zechariah 11:17. (See translation by Moffatt, An American Translation, The New English Bible.) But we shall make no mistake if we take the application of the words of Zechariah 13:7 as made by Jehovah’s greatest Prophet on earth, Jesus Christ. It was on the night of the Jewish Passover at Jerusalem, Nisan 14 of 33 C.E. Jesus had just celebrated the Passover supper and thereafter had inaugurated the Lord’s Supper (or, Evening Meal), and was now on his way with his eleven faithful apostles to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. At this point we read the record:

²⁸ “Then Jesus said to them: ‘All of you will be stumbled in connection with me on this night, for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered about.” But after I have been raised up, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.’”​—Matthew 26:31, 32; Mark 14:27, 28.

29. (a) In awaking against Jesus Christ, how was it that the sword was awaking against Jehovah’s Shepherd as “the able-bodied man who is my associate”? (b) Why could Jehovah have confidence in Jesus Christ when calling for the sword to awake against him?

²⁹ Did the Great Prophet Jesus make a true application of the words taken from Zechariah 13:7? Shortly afterward that same Passover night the “sword” of warfare did awake against Jehovah’s true Shepherd, even against the able-bodied man who was His earliest and closest associate, Jesus Christ his Son. This was his only-begotten Son, “the firstborn of all creation,” “the beginning of the creation by God.” (John 3:16; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) Before his birth as a human creature, he had enjoyed spiritual life with Jehovah God in heaven and had associated with his heavenly Father when He created all other things, Jehovah using his only-begotten Son as his agent in doing so. (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-18) Therefore, Jehovah had the fullest confidence in his Son, even when he was a perfect, able-bodied man on earth. He was convinced that his Son would keep his integrity under warfare by the enemy. In this assurance he called for the martial “sword” of the enemies to “awake” against his Son.

30. Why did Jesus quote Zechariah 13:7 as if Jehovah were doing the striking, and why did Jesus not resist being struck?

³⁰ Since it was Jehovah who prophetically issued the command to “strike the shepherd,” it was as if He himself were striking the shepherd. Hence Jesus could quote the prophetic words of Zechariah 13:7 as if his heavenly Father were saying: “I will strike the shepherd.” (See the Greek Septuagint translation in The Septuagint Bible, by Charles Thomson.) The crowd that came that Passover night under the guidance of the betrayer Judas Iscariot did come with literal swords and clubs. Jesus did not try to resist the fulfillment of the prophecy. If his heavenly Father had given the command for Jesus now to be struck, then he would submit to it.

31. What question did Jesus ask after telling Peter to sheathe his sword that had been drawn in defense, and what further part of Zechariah 13:7 now came true?

³¹ So, when the apostle Peter tried to defend Jesus with a sword, Jesus told him to return the sword to its sheath and commented: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father to supply me at this moment more than twelve legions of angels? In that case, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must take place this way?” Then after Jesus had asked the crowd why they had come out against him, a peaceful, public preacher, “with swords and clubs as against a robber,” he added: “But all this has taken place for the scriptures of the prophets to be fulfilled.” At this point the scripture of Zechariah was not all fulfilled. A further part came true, when, as the record states: “Then all the disciples abandoned him and fled.” In that way “those of the flock” were scattered.​—Matthew 26:51-56; Mark 14:47-50; John 18:1-9.

32. Who were “those who are insignificant,” and how did Jehovah turn his hand back upon them, according to Zechariah 13:7?

³² Jesus had correctly applied the prophecy. That night when he as the Fine Shepherd was struck with the “sword,” his sheep did become scattered, thus being stumbled in connection with him. But how was the further part of Zechariah 13:7 fulfilled: “And I shall certainly turn my hand back upon those who are insignificant.”? This proved to be a merciful and favorable turning back of Jehovah’s hand, as in the case of Isaiah 1:25, 26. With his “hand” of applied power Jehovah of armies protected the scattered sheep. These fearful apostles were “insignificant” in comparison with their Fine Shepherd Jesus Christ. Also, from the standpoint of the Jewish world of that day they were “insignificant,” not important enough to be taken into custody on that night of Jesus’ arrest. Yet not in Jehovah’s estimation were they “insignificant,” and he turned his compassionate attention to them and protected and preserved them. On the third day therefrom, on Nisan 16, he brought them together again to have the resurrected Jesus appear to them and resume shepherding them.​—Luke 24:33-43; John 20:1-29.

33. How did the enemies strike at Jehovah’s Shepherd with their “sword” during World War I, with what intent, and how did Jehovah turn his hand back upon the “insignificant” ones?

³³ At the climax of World War I in 1918 C.E., there was a similar scattering of the sheep of the governmental Shepherd Jesus Christ, whom Jehovah had enthroned in the heavens, in order to “go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” (Psalm 110:1, 2) Those earthly enemies had really declared war against the heavenly Shepherd whom Jehovah had appointed to shepherd the world of mankind. Unable to use the “sword” of war directly against Jehovah’s governmental Shepherd, they struck at “those of the flock” on earth by using their war powers and measures and arrangements against these “sheep,” to scatter them in the hope of separating them permanently, unable to be reorganized. But, as in the first century, Jehovah of armies turned his hand back upon these “insignificant” ones of the remnant of spiritual Israel. Marvelously he protected and preserved them, and in the first postwar year of 1919 C.E. he brought them together again in an organized fashion. At this reviving and exalting of them in His service, their seemingly triumphant enemies were astounded and became fearful.​—Revelation 11:7-13.

“TWO PARTS” ARE CUT OFF

34. From what is a tremendous part of the world population being cut off, and why so?

³⁴ The striking of Jehovah’s Shepherd and Associate led to consequences that have affected all mankind, even to this day. A modern-day parallel of it in our twentieth century has had marked effects upon this generation that has been living in this “time of the end,” this “conclusion of the system of things.” A tremendous part of the world population are being “cut off” from any share in the God-given spiritual estate or “land” of divine favor and blessing. Because of their preoccupation with the material and political and social things of this present system of things, they are indifferent or ignorant as regards the far-reaching prophecy of Zechariah 13:8, 9 that is being fulfilled toward them. Note what it says:

35. How many “parts” does Zechariah 13:8, 9 say will be “cut off”?

³⁵ “‘And it must occur in all the land,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that two parts in it are what will be cut off and expire; and as for the third part, it will be left remaining in it. And I shall certainly bring the third part through the fire; and I shall actually refine them as in the refining of silver, and examine them as in the examining of gold. It, for its part, will call upon my name, and I, for my part, will answer it.’”

36. Did the fact that the spiritual remnant were liberated and reinstated in their “land” in 1919 C.E. mean that Jehovah was through refining and examining them, and what typical picture shows whether or not?

³⁶ Let us remind ourselves that these words were spoken, through the prophet Zechariah, to the repatriated remnant of Israel in the “land” of Judah. That ancient Israelite remnant would typify or prophetically prefigure the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites in this “time of the end,” this “conclusion of the system of things” that began when the Gentile Times ended in 1914 C.E. After the severe trials and bondage experienced during World War I, the surviving remnant of spiritual Israelites were liberated and reinstated in their God-given spiritual estate or “land” in 1919, in the spring of that meaningful year. The fact that those of this surviving remnant had come through the persecution and afflictions of that first world conflict did not mean that they were now finished with their being tried and examined by the heavenly Refiner Jehovah God. It was not so in the case of the Israelite remnant (including Zechariah) who were liberated from fallen Babylon in 537 B.C.E. They had quite a time getting the second temple of Jehovah completed at Jerusalem, first by the year 515 B.C.E. It has been correspondingly so with the remnant of spiritual Israel since 1919.

37. What did Malachi prophesy about sixty years later concerning Jehovah’s refining work and the restoring of pure worship at His temple?

³⁷ The prophet Malachi, who prophesied in the land of Judah about sixty years after Zechariah lived, foretold that Jehovah, accompanied by his “messenger of the covenant,” would come to his temple. There He would sit “as a refiner and cleanser of silver” and he would “cleanse the sons of Levi.” Why? So as to bring about a restoration of the pure worship of the true God at his temple. Then, just as predicted by Malachi, “They will certainly become to Jehovah people presenting a gift offering in righteousness. And the gift offering of Judah and of Jerusalem will actually be gratifying to Jehovah, as in the days of long ago and as in the years of antiquity.”​—Malachi 3:1-4; written about 443 B.C.E.

38. What more would there be to it besides the cleansing of the sons of Levi, in order to cleanse the land?

³⁸ There would be more to it than the cleansing of the sons of Levi as temple functionaries, in order to make the “land” of his restored people a land of clean, godly living. Jehovah also said: “‘And I will come near to you people for the judgment, and I will become a speedy witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing falsely, and against those acting fraudulently with the wages of a wage worker, with the widow and with the fatherless boy, and those turning away the alien resident, while they have not feared me,’ Jehovah of armies has said. ‘For I am Jehovah; I have not changed. And you are sons of Jacob [Israel]; you have not come to your finish. . . . Return to me, and I will return to you,’ Jehovah of armies has said.”​—Malachi 3:5-7.

39. Was there a fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy in the first century C.E., and what indicates whether there should be any fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy since 1914 C.E.?

³⁹ There was a first-century fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy at the time that the Messiah Jesus was present in the flesh among the nation of Israel. (Matthew 11:7-10; Mark 1:1, 2; Luke 7:24-27) There should likewise be a further fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy after Jesus Christ was enthroned in the heavens in the year 1914 C.E. and thus became present in his kingdom. At the due time thereafter Jehovah God, accompanied by him as “the messenger of the covenant,” must have come to his spiritual temple for the judgment of all his worshipers there, including those who were merely professing to worship Him. Certainly Jehovah must have been at his spiritual temple as the Supreme Judge by the year 1919, when he liberated the spiritual Israelites from Babylon the Great and restored them to their “land” or God-given spiritual estate on earth.

40. How did Jehovah act like a Refiner of precious metal, and who were due to be “cut off” from 1919 C.E. onward?

⁴⁰ In harmony with the prophetic picture, Jehovah would act as a refiner of his professed people. He would clear away those who were like dross. He would treasure and keep those who were like pure precious metal, like clarified silver and gold. So from 1919 C.E. onward it would be the time for certain ones to be cut off from the “land” that was to be inhabited by his restored people. Spiritually speaking, such “cut off” ones must “expire” as far as vital relationship with Jehovah is concerned.

41. In his parable of the sower, what did Jesus say about the cutting off of some?

⁴¹ Who, then, are the “two parts in it” that are “cut off and expire”? (Zechariah 13:8) This is something for the reigning King Jesus Christ as the “messenger of the covenant” to indicate for us. This has to do with the “conclusion of the system of things,” the “time of the end” in which we have been living since 1914. (Daniel 12:4; Matthew 24:3-14; 28:20) What did Jesus say about this critical period? In explaining the parable of the sower he said:

“The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; as for the fine seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels. Therefore, just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be in the conclusion of the system of things. The Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness, and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be. At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”​—Matthew 13:37-43.

42. Who specifically are those symbolic “weeds,” and from what are they cut off, and by whom?

⁴² That parabolic illustration foretold a cutting off of a large part in the conclusion of the system of things, where we are now living since 1914 C.E. The part cut off during this time is the symbolic weeds, who picture the “sons of the wicked one,” Satan the Devil, the “enemy” who sowed such weeds. They were for a long time mistaken for being symbolic wheat, mistaken for being the “sons of the kingdom,” that is to say, anointed Christians with a call to the heavenly kingdom. They pretended to be Christians, and so they were confused with the true anointed Christians who are heirs of the Kingdom. But their development to what they really are in this time of the “harvest” has proved them to be “weeds,” imitation Christians, who, like the Devil their sower, are enemies of the Kingdom. Rightly, they are “cut off” from association with the “wheat” class. The heavenly angels, as “reapers,” are the ones used to cut them off. These pitch the “weeds” into the “fire” and such weeds will not come through that “fire.” Their false identity is destroyed, and finally they themselves also.

43. In his prophecy on the “sign” of the conclusion of the system of things, how did Jesus describe the harvest of the chosen ones, and thereafter whose cutting off did he foretell?

⁴³ However, there is another “part” or class that is “cut off” in this “conclusion of the system of things.” Jesus Christ foretold this “part” or class in his marvelous prophecy regarding the “sign” of his presence and of the conclusion of the system of things. (Matthew 24:3) In this prophecy he tells of the “harvest,” which history shows began in the year 1919 C.E., and he said: “He will send forth his angels with a great trumpet sound, and they will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from one extremity of the heavens to their other extremity.” (Matthew 24:31) Then, toward the middle of this prophecy, he said:

“On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming.

“Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to you, He will appoint him over all his belongings.

“But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master is delaying,’ and should start to beat his fellow slaves and should eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect and in an hour that he does not know, and will punish him with the greatest severity and will assign him his part with the hypocrites. There is where his weeping and the gnashing of his teeth will be.”​—Matthew 24:44-51; compare with this Luke 12:42-46 with its similar parable.

44. What class, then, does that “evil slave” picture, and why is that class cut off, and from what?

⁴⁴ Here it is the “evil slave” who is “cut off,” he being assigned his part, not with the fellow slaves of his master, but with the hypocrites, with the unfaithful ones, after he has been punished with the greatest severity. Just as the “faithful and discreet slave” pictures a class of anointed Christians who are actually in the household of the Master Jesus Christ as his “domestics,” so that “evil slave” pictures a class. This class of Christians, unlike the “weeds,” was anointed with God’s spirit and was a part of the Master’s household, he being a fellow slave therein. However, this class turns unfaithful, becomes self-seeking, loses self-control over its appetites, mistreats fellow slaves in an abuse of power and authority, and becomes careless and indifferent toward the matter of having to account with its Master at his coming. Therefore, during this “conclusion of the system of things,” this time of his second and invisible “presence,” as King, he cuts this “evil slave” class off. He disfellowships them to the religious hypocrites and to the unfaithful ones. There they expire.

45. Thus how many “parts” have been “cut off,” and who have been brought through the “fire,” and why have they called upon God’s name?

⁴⁵ Thus “two parts” or the majority of those professing to be Christians at this time are cut off from the “land” or God-given spiritual estate of Jehovah’s restored remnant. But the Sovereign Lord God has brought a “third part,” a minority of those professing to be heirs of God’s heavenly kingdom, through the “fire” of testing and examining as to their faith, personality and works. These have humbly submitted to the refining process as applied by the great Refiner, although it has been trialsome. To endure the figurative heat, they have had to call upon Jehovah’s name, and he has answered them according to the sincerity of their hearts.

46. What has Jehovah said to this “third part,” and how, and what has this “part” said in response?

⁴⁶ In fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 13:9, the heavenly Supervisor of his “land” has not cut off this “third part” from the God-given spiritual estate of his restored remnant. He has said, by his evident favor toward them and by his marvelous dealings with them as His witnesses: “It is my people.” In turn, the faithful anointed remnant has said: “Jehovah is my God.” Outstandingly so since July 26, 1931, when those of this anointed remnant embraced the name “Jehovah’s witnesses.” They have remained active on their spiritual “land” to this day, praising their God.

47. Who is it out of all the nations that attach themselves to the “third part” to join in worship at Jehovah’s temple?

⁴⁷ It is to this “third part” that has been left remaining in this spiritual “land” that the “ten men out of all the languages of the nations” attach themselves, taking hold of the skirt of these faithful spiritual Jews or Israelites. To these the international “great crowd” as pictured by the “ten men” are saying: “We will go with you people, for we have heard that God is with you people.” (Zechariah 8:20-23) In increasing numbers, by the tens of thousands in a year, these associate themselves with the anointed remnant on their “land” and worship Jehovah at his temple.​—Revelation 7:9-15.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 21

Theocracy Triumphs over All the Nations

1. Instead of the fulfillment of the last chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy upon it, what was the experience of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives in 70 C.E.?

FROM being the victim of international attack to being the religious center sought out by all nations​—this is the theme of the glorious concluding chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy! Such a marvelous metamorphosis did not take place with earthly Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. In that year the feet that stood upon the Mount of Olives that overlooks Jerusalem from the east were feet of the Tenth Legion of the four Roman legions under General Titus that surrounded the doomed city. It was not half of the city that went forth into exile, but the entire city and its temple were destroyed, 1,100,000 Jews perishing during the siege of the city, and 97,000 Jewish survivors were led off as captives to be scattered to the ends of the earth, “into all the nations.” (Luke 21:20-24) That certainly was not the fulfillment of the heart-gripping prophecy of the Most High God as stated in Zechariah 14:1-4:

2. According to Zechariah 14:1-4, who were to be gathered against Jerusalem, was the city to be destroyed, and whose feet were to stand upon the Mount of Olives?

² “Look! There is a day coming, belonging to Jehovah, and the spoil of you will certainly be apportioned out in the midst of you. And I shall certainly gather all the nations against Jerusalem for the war; and the city will actually be captured and the houses be pillaged, and the women themselves will be raped. And half of the city must go forth into the exile; but as for the remaining ones of the people, they will not be cut off from the city. And Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight. And his feet will actually stand in that day upon the mountain of the olive trees, which is in front of Jerusalem, on the east; and the mountain of the olive trees must be split at its middle, from the sunrising and to the west. There will be a very great valley; and half of the mountain will actually be moved to the north, and half of it to the south.”

3. To whom does the Hebrew feminine pronoun “you” apply, and what questions does this therefore raise?

³ In those stirring words of prophecy the pronoun “you” is in the feminine gender, in the Hebrew text, and it therefore refers to the city. But not in actuality to the earthly city of Jerusalem, either in the days of Jesus’ apostles or in our twentieth century. Those divine words are addressed to a higher city, to “a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,” to which the Christian congregation of spiritual Israelites has approached. (Hebrews 12:22) But how can that be? How can Jehovah of armies gather all the earthly nations against the “heavenly Jerusalem,” and this city be captured by them and its houses be pillaged, its women be raped, and half of the city go off into the exile?

4. In his Sermon on the Mount, what did Jesus call Jerusalem, and to what did earthly Jerusalem renounce its right at the time of his triumphal ride into it?

⁴ Let us recall to mind what was represented by the ancient Jerusalem down to the days of Christ’s apostles. Remember Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is God’s throne; . . . nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.” (Matthew 5:34, 35) Down till the year 607 B.C.E., “Jehovah’s throne” used to be there in Jerusalem, it being a material throne occupied by an anointed royal descendant of David with whom Jehovah made a covenant for an everlasting kingdom in his family line. In the year 33 C.E., when Jesus, the spirit-anointed descendant of King David, rode in a triumphal procession into Jerusalem, that city did not want him as King. Thus the earthly Jerusalem renounced its right to have the Permanent Heir of King David sit upon a royal throne within it. Its Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, had Jesus Christ put to death on an execution stake just outside the walls of Jerusalem.​—Matthew 21:1-43.

5. How was God’s promise of an everlasting kingdom in the line of David not allowed to fail because of Jesus’ violent death?

⁵ Was the divine promise of an everlasting kingdom in the royal line of David to fail because of this violent death of David’s spirit-anointed Permanent Heir? Impossible! The unbelieving Jews, led by their religious shepherds, took Jesus to be a false Christ. But not so! For on the third day the Almighty God of heaven did the humanly impossible. He raised the real Permanent Heir of King David from the dead, not giving him back his forever-sacrificed fleshly body, but giving him spirit nature, the “divine nature,” clothed with immortality. That is the meaning of the Christian apostle Peter’s own words: “Even Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit.”​—1 Peter 3:18; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 Corinthians 15:42-45, 53, 54.

6. (a) To whose presence did the resurrected Jesus ascend, and what did he do there? (b) How did the apostle Peter’s words to the inquiring Jews at Pentecost indicate that the right to have Jehovah’s throne in her had passed from earthly Jerusalem?

⁶ On the fortieth day therefrom this transformed Jesus Christ ascended from the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem to the invisible heavenly presence of Jehovah God, to present to the Supreme Judge the ransoming value of his perfect human sacrifice. Ten days later, on Sivan 6 of 33 C.E., or the festival day of Pentecost, Jehovah God used his returned Son Jesus Christ to pour out the holy spirit upon the apostle Peter and over a hundred other waiting disciples assembled in an upper room in earthly Jerusalem. Consequently, under the dynamic force of that outpoured spirit, the apostle Peter said to the crowd of thousands of inquiring Jews: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.” (Acts 1:12-15; 2:1-36) Those words signified that the right to have a representative throne of Jehovah occupied by the Permanent Heir of King David had passed from the earthly Jerusalem to the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.”​—Matthew 21:42-44.

7. In view of the Jerusalem involved, what questions arise as to fulfillment of Zechariah 14:2?

⁷ None of the nations of earth, either Jewish or Gentile, can dethrone Jesus Christ from his royal seat in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Neither can any nation or gathering of nations actually capture the “heavenly Jerusalem” and pillage it. How, then, can the prophecy of Zechariah 14:2 be applied to the “heavenly Jerusalem” and find a fulfillment in it? How, if at all, has it been fulfilled in the case of the “heavenly Jerusalem”? If so, when?

8, 9. (a) To what time did Jehovah himself apply that prophecy, and when did that time begin, and why? (b) What announcement was heard in heaven confirming this?

⁸ Again we must remember that the prophet, God himself, applied it to the “day coming, belonging to Jehovah.” (Zechariah 14:1) That spectacular day, the day of Jehovah, has already come. Zechariah 14:3 foretells that Jehovah’s day is to be marked by his fighting, his warring; and so this remarkable day in which Jehovah will once again display himself to all the nations as a Warrior must be the one marked by the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” The issue over which that war is to be fought is to be settled at the compelling world situation “that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.” Already we can see all the political nations being gathered by diabolical leadings to that location for the unavoidable confrontation. (Revelation 16:13-16) Consequently, that ‘day, belonging to Jehovah,’ began in the year 1914 C.E., at the end of the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” about October 4/5 of that year. At that time there came the “birth” of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom, Jehovah’s Christian kingdom, in the heavens. Then could be heard up there the announcement:

⁹ “The kingdom of the world did become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule as king forever and ever.”​—Revelation 11:15.

10. Also, what were the voices of those who upheld the world kingdom of the Lord Jehovah and his Christ saying because of that?

¹⁰ Then could be heard the voices of those who uphold that world kingdom of our Lord Jehovah and of his Christ, saying: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king. But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time for the dead to be judged, and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and to those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”​—Revelation 11:16-18; 12:1-10.

11. Did the Gentile nations believe that the Gentile Times would end, as predicted, in 1914 C.E., and what was one big reason for their attitude?

¹¹ For more than three decades the nations had been notified that those “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” would terminate in the fall of 1914 C.E. (Luke 21:24) The nations did not believe that those “appointed times” of uninterrupted rule of the whole earth by the Gentile nations, from the year 607 B.C.E. onward, would really end in that year of 1914 C.E. Why not? For one thing, because the combined clergy of Christendom, the priests and the preachers of her churches, were not believing it and hence not preaching it. They ridiculed and scorned the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites, who, as International Bible Students, were pointing to the Bible’s time schedule and declaring that the “times of the Gentiles” would end in 1914, to usher in an unprecedented “time of trouble” upon all the nations. However, the overwhelming evidence since that epoch-making year proves that the clergy of Christendom were wrong. The Gentile Times did end then.

12. What, in this connection, could the nations not directly attack, and so what did they attack, in expression of what feeling?

¹² In defiance of the evidence that began to pile up from 1914 onward, the Gentile nations did not want to believe or choose to believe that their term of world power without opposition from any Messianic kingdom of God had ended. They could not undo what had taken place in the “heavenly Jerusalem” in that year. They could not directly attack that invisible heavenly city and its Messianic King, Jesus Christ. But they could attack what represented it on earth. They could attack the anointed remnant of the “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens.” They could attack this remnant of “ambassadors substituting for Christ” who were notifying the nations of the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. They could attack this remnant of “heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ.” (Hebrews 12:22, 23; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 6:20; Romans 8:16, 17) That is exactly what the war-engulfed nations did. Revelation 11:18 had said, prophetically: “The nations became wrathful.” They expressed their wrath by persecuting the anointed remnant.

13. The nations were in effect attacking the “heavenly Jerusalem” because of what spiritual aspects of the anointed remnant under attack, and when did they think they had ‘captured the city’?

¹³ What the nations did to this remnant of Kingdom ambassadors, Kingdom heirs, enrolled in the heavens, was the same as if done to the “heavenly Jerusalem,” where those of the anointed remnant have their “citizenship.” (Philippians 3:20) Those nations began to war, not just against the anointed remnant, but against all that they represented and what they preached. Jehovah God the Almighty did not prevent this, for he had foretold it. (Zechariah 14:1, 2) He had foretold: “The city will actually be captured.” Was it? As represented by the anointed remnant, it was. There was a confining of many members of the anointed remnant in the military encampments or in prisons. But the nations felt that they had indeed “captured” the spiritual “city” when, during the spring and summer of 1918, they arrested and railroaded off to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., seven outstanding members of the Governing Body of the anointed remnant.a

14. What happened to earthly Jerusalem in the years 1917, 1948 and 1967 C.E. was of what importance to the fulfillment of Zechariah 14:1-4, and why?

¹⁴ The capture of Jerusalem in Palestine some months earlier by British General Allenby, whose troops marched into Jerusalem on December 10, 1917, the next day after its surrender, played no part in fulfilling Zechariah 14:2. Earthly Jerusalem was captured from the Islamic Turks, who certainly do not worship the God with the name Jehovah. The Sovereign Lord Jehovah had decreed the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem of the Jews, and neither before nor after its destruction in the year 70 C.E. did he issue authorization for that earthly city to be rebuilt by his people. What was now of real and foremost importance to him was the higher Jerusalem, the “heavenly Jerusalem.” So in the case of an earthly Jerusalem, that was rebuilt in the second century by non-Jewish or Gentile hands, what happened to it in 1917 C.E., or 1948 C.E. or in 1967 C.E. was of no importance and had no connection with the fulfillment of Zechariah 14:1-4.

15. Besides such imprisonment and detention, what else occurred during World War I to correspond with mistreatment of the inhabitants of the captured “Jerusalem”?

¹⁵ During World War I, besides imprisonments and detention in military encampments, there were widespread mobbings and mistreatment of members of the anointed remnant who represented the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Much of their property was also destroyed. (See The Golden Age, No. 27, as of September 29, 1920, featuring “‘Distress of Nations’: Cause, Warning, Remedy.”) The unchristian injustice and brutality that thus occurred corresponded with what Zechariah 14:1, 2 foretold: “The city will actually be captured and the houses be pillaged, and the women themselves will be raped.”

16. (a) How did some go forth into the exile, as foretold? (b) How was the “spoil” of the city apportioned out in the midst of it according to the prophecy?

¹⁶ Doubtless, this persecution alienated many members away from the anointed remnant, the enemy thus carrying them into spiritual exile; as it was foretold: “And half of the city must go forth into the exile.” What about the further part of the prophecy: “And the spoil of you will certainly be apportioned out in the midst of you”? What the attackers were after was to despoil the anointed remnant of the wealth of influence and popular appeal that the remnant exercised in behalf of the now established kingdom of God. This their attackers did by banning their literature and repressing the activities of them as Kingdom ambassadors.

17. Who proved to be the “remaining ones” concerning whom it was prophesied: “They will not be cut off from the city”?

¹⁷ Despite all the misrepresentation, opposition and persecution at the hands of the attackers, there was a faithful part of the anointed remnant that refused to be alienated, exiled, from the Messianic kingdom of God as now set up in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” These are the ones referred to when the prophecy says: “But as for the remaining ones of the people, they will not be cut off from the city.” So these are the ones that survived the hardships and trials of the first world war, which the enemies used as a fine occasion to attack the anointed remnant and despoil them of their ambassadorship for Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom.

18. Was that attack of the gathered nations during World War I the last attack in fulfillment of the prophecy, and what already proves whether or not?

¹⁸ We are not to think, however, that with the close of World War I the prophecy was carried out to the full and there were to be no more mass attacks by the gathered nations. The “heavenly Jerusalem” still remained, and it had a devoted remnant of loyal representatives on earth, to whom the earthly interests of God’s Messianic kingdom had been entrusted. As might well be expected, that World War I attack upon them by the gathered nations was not the last attack launched against the “heavenly Jerusalem” and its spiritual citizens on earth. World War II of 1939-1945 proved that. It provided for the embattled nations an excellent opportunity to resume the attack, yes, on even a more massive scale and with greater violence. More plainly than ever, this atrocious war between the earthly nations was for world domination, in defiance of Jehovah’s rightful sovereignty of the earth. In fighting for the mastery of God’s good earth those nations were in fact fighting against the heavenly government that the Sovereign Lord Jehovah had put in power in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” So once again “the nations became wrathful” against the remnant.

19. How did the attack on the “city” during World War II compare with that during World War I, and what did the Governing Body, from 1942 forward, plan for the future?

¹⁹ The violence and repressive measures against the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses far exceeded what they experienced during the first world war. The persecution flared not just against the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites; it flamed also against those of the “ten men” out of all the languages of the nations who had joined the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel in worship at Jehovah’s spiritual temple. (Zechariah 8:20-23) The faithful ones held firmly to their Christian neutrality toward worldly combats and stuck fast to Jehovah’s theocratic government as the only rightful government of all the earth. Remarkably, although concentration camps and prisons opened their gates to thousands of uncompromising Christian witnesses of Jehovah in the lands at war, none of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses world wide was imprisoned. Instead of yielding to enemy pressures and arranging to close down their God-given work, the Governing Body planned from 1942 forward to expand the witness to Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom to newer regions of the earth, even before peace arrived with its United Nations organization in 1945.

20. Did World War II settle the dominant issue, and what will the nations have in mind in making a final attack on the anointed remnant?

²⁰ Like World War I, so World War II settled nothing. Certainly the issue of world domination has not been settled, but tension over this is mounting among the superpowers. They still rebel against world domination by the Universal Sovereign Jehovah. Resentfully they are against those who proclaim and advocate the world sovereignty of the great Theocrat Jehovah by means of his Messianic kingdom. Those who advocate this are, not the religious churches of Christendom, but the theocratic Christian witnesses of Jehovah. So the time will come, shortly, when all the nations engaged in international rivalry for world domination will decide that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have no right to a place on earth. In blatant rejection of all that suggests God or divine rulership, they will destroy all religious Christendom and all religious pagandom. Then in a do-or-die effort they will hurl their final attack against the surviving Christian witnesses of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Will the nations succeed this time?

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES SPLIT AT ITS MIDDLE

21. What chance of survival will the anointed remnant and their companions have then?

²¹ Under the coming attack by the nuclear-powered nations en masse, what chance of survival do the anointed remnant and their fellow proclaimers of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom have? As much of a “chance” as the prophetic Word of God allows them. What “chance” does it allow them? For it says:

22. What experience does Zechariah 14:3-5 foretell for the Mount of Olives?

²² “And Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight. And his feet will actually stand in that day upon the mountain of the olive trees, which is in front of Jerusalem, on the east; and the mountain of the olive trees must be split at its middle, from the sunrising and to the west. There will be a very great valley; and half of the mountain will actually be moved to the north, and half of it to the south. And you people will certainly flee to the valley of my mountains; because the valley of the mountains will reach all the way to Azel. And you will have to flee, just as you fled because of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah. And Jehovah my God will certainly come, all the holy ones being with him.”​—Zechariah 14:3-5.

23. As to how the symbolic “Mount of Olives” is split at the middle, what is the prophecy given by Daniel to which we turn for an illustration?

²³ Since Jerusalem is here symbolic​—of the “heavenly Jerusalem”—​so also must the “mountain of the olive trees” be. How, then, will what it symbolizes be “split at its middle” and become two mountains, “my mountains,” as Jehovah says? A prophet whom Zechariah may have personally known in ancient Babylon records a prophetic dream that illustrates how this will come about. About the year 605 B.C.E. the king of Babylon had his dream of a manlike image, that, by its four metals and clay, pictured the unbroken succession of world powers from Babylon down to the Anglo-American World Power of today together with all the associated political rulers of our time. Then, some distance away, a large mountain is seen. Without the human hands of any excavators a stone is cut out of this original mountain. Without its being pitched by a human hand, it takes on motion and speeds on its way. Into outer space? No, but toward that metallic image of world domination of political world powers. Without a miss it smashes against the image, striking it upon its feet that are part of iron and part of clay. Instead of splattering to pieces at its impact with those feet, why, believe it or not, it crushes them. Down comes the whole image to the ground. What next? This:

“At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them. And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.”​—Daniel 2:1, 31-35.

24. What interpretation of the dream did Daniel give to King Nebuchadnezzar?

²⁴ Now just two mountains remain to view​—the large mountain filling the whole earth, and the original mountain quite a distance away from the earth and hence not of this earth. This outcome is what all future inhabitants of our earth face in the realization of this symbolic dream. What does it mean? Listen, as Daniel interprets the dream to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon:

“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite; forasmuch as you beheld that out of the mountain a stone was cut not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the copper, the molded clay, the silver and the gold. The grand God himself has made known to the king what is to occur after this. And the dream is reliable, and the interpretation of it is trustworthy.”​—Daniel 2:36-45.

25. What does the original “mountain” picture, and what does the “mountain” that grows up out of the stone picture?

²⁵ By this “trustworthy” inspired interpretation we know that the stone mountain that filled the whole earth pictured a permanent kingdom. Consistently, then, the mountain from which the stone was cut out “not by hands” pictured a permanent kingdom. Since it is the “God of heaven” who sets up over all the earth the “kingdom that will never be brought to ruin,” that original mountain, which fathers the “stone,” pictured God’s universal kingdom. It pictured his theocratic rule. The mountain that grew up from the stone and that becomes the only mountain on earth pictures the kingdom of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the Messianic kingdom, which will be the only kingdom in control of the earth after the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon puts an end to the man-made, devil-controlled kingdoms of this present system of things. (Revelation 16:14-16) Thus there will be two symbolic “mountains,” two kingdoms, that of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah as the Great Theocrat and that of His Messiah, Jesus, over all the earth. In this way Jehovah, in exercising once again his universal sovereignty, will use the kingdom of his Son as his agency.

26. What does the Mount of Olives, in its undivided state, symbolize, and how does this compare with the “heavenly Jerusalem”?

²⁶ The divine prophecy through Zechariah concerning “that day” corresponds with the prophetic dream interpreted by Daniel. So the “mountain of the olive trees” to the east of earthly Jerusalem pictures, in its undivided state, the universal kingdom of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Just as the highest eminence of the Mount of Olives rises to a height of 2,963 feet and thus dominates the general level of Jerusalem by more than 400 feet, so Jehovah’s universal kingdom dominates the “heavenly Jerusalem” and uses it as a theocratic agency.​—Hebrews 12:22.

27. Why does the splitting of the Mount of Olives not picture Jehovah’s universal kingdom’s becoming divided against itself?

²⁷ God’s universal kingdom never becomes divided against itself. (Matthew 12:25, 26) That is not what is pictured by the splitting of the Mount of Olives “at its middle.” Jehovah does not act against his own sovereignty by establishing the Messianic kingdom of his Son. What, then, does this division of the Mount of Olives picture, and when does its division take place?

28. Does the splitting of the mountain picture the dividing of Jehovah’s supremacy and sovereignty, and so what does the splitting of the mountain “at its middle” really picture?

²⁸ It does not picture a dividing of Jehovah’s supremacy, nor the dividing of his universal sovereignty. He always remains the Most High God and the Sovereign Lord of the universe. In harmony with the prophetic dream as interpreted at Daniel 2:44, 45, the splitting of the mountain that is to the east of Jerusalem pictures Jehovah’s establishing of a kingdom that is subsidiary to his own universal kingdom, because it is over an area that is really a rebel territory so that Jehovah cannot deal directly with it. It is a kingdom of one who is in the line of earthly King David, and also a kingdom after the manner of that of King-Priest Melchizedek. Hence it is a government not just over King David’s earthly domain but also over the whole earth.​—Psalm 110:1-4; Hebrews 5:10 to 8:1; Acts 2:34-36.

29. So this split produces what kind of a kingdom, and when did this split occur, and why?

²⁹ This produces a kingdom of the only-begotten Son of God alongside of and subject to the kingdom of God the Father. And since this secondary kingdom has connections with the earthly kingdom of David, it must take into account the 2,520-year-long Gentile Times that were imposed upon the kingdom of David. Hence that secondary kingdom in the hands of the Messianic King, the Son of God, was first established at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E.​—Luke 21:24; Daniel 4:16, 23-25; Hebrews 10:12, 13.

30. What does God speak of the two resulting mountains as being, what does each one picture, and what must be said as to opposition of the one to the other?

³⁰ This explains why Jehovah speaks of the two mountains that result from the split of the Mount of Olives as being “my mountains.” (Zechariah 14:5) Scripturally the mountain to the north would picture Jehovah’s universal kingdom, and the mountain to the south the Messianic kingdom of his Son. (Psalm 75:6, 7) That this newly produced “mountain” kingdom is subject to and not opposed to Jehovah’s universal kingdom is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:25-28:

“For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. As the last enemy, death is to be brought to nothing. For God ‘subjected all things under his feet.’ But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected,’ it is evident that it is with the exception of the one who subjected all things to him. But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.”

31. (a) How does the prophecy show that both kingdoms remain subject to Jehovah? (b) His “feet” being there indicates what, and who is the Chief One with whom He comes?

³¹ That both kingdoms are, from the start, subject to the Sovereign Lord God is set out in the declaration: “And his feet will actually stand in that day upon the mountain of the olive trees, which is in front of Jerusalem, on the east.” And when the symbolic mountain splits, half to the north and half to the south, Jehovah’s feet remain set upon both mountains, “my mountains.” Since the Mount of Olives is hundreds of feet higher than ancient Jerusalem, from a vantage point like this the Most High God, Jehovah, could see what goes on with regard to the “heavenly Jerusalem” as respects its interests in the earth. When, symbolically speaking, Jehovah plants his feet upon the Mount of Olives, it means that he has come. Just as he prophetically said: “And Jehovah my God will certainly come, all the holy ones being with him.” The Chief One of his heavenly “holy ones” is, of course, his sinless Son, Jesus Christ, whom he makes king over the secondary “mountain” kingdom. (Zechariah 14:5) Such “holy ones” act as Jehovah’s executional forces.

32. (a) What results from the splitting of the mountain, and what advantage is taken of the resulting formation? (b) The fugitives there come under what divine provision?

³² “There will be a very great valley; and half of the mountain will actually be moved to the north, and half of it to the south. And you people will certainly flee to the valley of my mountains; because the valley of the mountains will reach all the way to Azel. And you will have to flee, just as you fled because of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah.” (Zechariah 14:4, 5) This flight of the repatriated remnant of Jehovah’s people is not panicky flight “in order to enter into the holes in the rocks and into the clefts of the crags” or a “saying to the mountains and to the rock-masses: ‘Fall over us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.’” (Isaiah 2:20, 21; Revelation 6:15, 16) It will be a flight to God’s protective provision, a flight to the very great valley between “my mountains,” guarded on the north and on the south by the halves of the symbolic Mount of Olives. Yes, to beneath Jehovah’s feet. That valley of divine protection extended from the Kidron Valley overlooked by the eastern wall of Jerusalem all the way eastward to Azel, with plenty of room for fugitives.

33. The flight of the remnant began when, and it has some relationship with what flight described in Revelation, chapter twelve, and yet why is it longer?

³³ In our twentieth century, the flight of the restored remnant of spiritual Israelites began after their liberation from Babylon the Great and her political, military consorts in the spring of 1919 C.E. In Revelation 12:1-14, the flight of God’s heavenly “woman” into the wilderness after the birth of the Messianic kingdom and the war in heaven to oust the Devil and his angels has some relationship to the flight of the anointed remnant on earth from 1919 onward. But her flight is not the same as theirs; her flight and stay in the wilderness away from the face of the diabolical “dragon” is for only one thousand two hundred and sixty days or three and one-half prophetic “times.” It coincides partly with the flight of the anointed remnant, “the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17) But the flight of all those dedicated, baptized ones who become part of the anointed remnant was not over by the end of the woman’s 1,260 days. The remnant are still in that symbolic “valley” under protection of Jehovah’s universal kingdom and the Messianic kingdom of his Son.

34. When comes the fulfillment of that part of the prophecy about Jehovah’s going forth as in the day of his warring, to fight?

³⁴ When, though, comes fulfillment of this part of the prophecy: “And Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight”? (Zechariah 14:3) It was not in 1914, at the end of the Gentile Times, although the establishing of the Messianic kingdom of the heavens was a step in that direction. But Jehovah of armies has yet a fixed time to go forth to war against those nations that attack the representatives on earth of his “heavenly Jerusalem.” Those Gentile nations (including those of Christendom) did launch a vicious attack upon the anointed remnant during World War I and then a more violent and sweeping one during World War II. But their final attack is now being planned for and is yet to come​—under the leadership of the foretold “Gog of the land of Magog.” (Ezekiel 38:1 to 39:5) Then Jehovah of armies will make that to be their last attack, and he will distinguish himself as a Warrior more gloriously than in any previous ‘day of warring,’ in any former “day of fight.”

THE WAR AND THE EFFECTS OF “THAT DAY”

35. How does Jehovah prophesy that that will be the darkest day of all for the attacking nations, and how is the immobilization of the enemies’ operational things indicated?

³⁵ That day of Jehovah’s warring against the attacking nations should be the darkest day of their existence. He even forecasts such a day for them, saying: “And it must occur in that day that there will prove to be no precious light​—things will be congealed.” (Zechariah 14:6) “And it hath come to pass, in that day, the precious light is not, it is dense darkness.” (Yg) “And it shall come to pass in that day there shall be no light, but cold and ice.” (Syriac, Lamsa) No heavenly light of divine favor and loving warmth will shine upon them. Artificial lights of modern science will not remove the darkness of divine disfavor. Operational things will be immobilized, stiffened with cold, as if congealed. This reminds us of Jehovah’s questions to the patriarch Job: “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow, or do you see even the storehouses of the hail, which I have kept back for the time of distress, for the day of fight and war? Out of whose belly does the ice actually come forth, and as for the hoarfrost of heaven, who indeed brings it to birth?” (Job 38:22, 23, 29) Jehovah has natural phenomena at his disposal for fighting.

36. How does Jehovah, through the prophet Isaiah, speak of the darkness of the “great tribulation” upon Babylon the Great, and what will such darkness betoken?

³⁶ Concerning the lack of light and of warmth on that day, Jehovah of armies says concerning the coming time of “great tribulation” upon all of Babylon the Great as an enemy of the “heavenly Jerusalem” these words: “Look! The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, in order to make the land an object of astonishment, and that it may annihilate the land’s sinners out of it. For the very stars of the heavens and their constellations of Kesil will not flash forth their light; the sun will actually grow dark at its going forth, and the moon itself will not cause its light to shine.” (Isaiah 13:9, 10) When Jehovah of armies executes his adverse judgments upon his enemies during this day that belongs to him, there will, as it were, be neither the warm light of the sun nor the cold light of the moon. Such darkness betokens coming destruction!

37. What will be extraordinary about that day, as foretold in Zechariah 14:7?

³⁷ How does this which is a cold dark day for the attackers of the “New Jerusalem” result for Jehovah of armies and his theocratic organization? He himself tells us in these words: “And it must become one day that is known as belonging to Jehovah. It will not be day, neither will it be night; and it must occur that at evening time it will become light.”​—Zechariah 14:7.

38. In what way will that time period of neither day nor night become light at evening time, and for whom?

³⁸ Does this description mean a twenty-four-hour period of medium light, midway between light and darkness, a twilight? Not for Jehovah of armies and for his “heavenly Jerusalem,” not even for those who on earth represent the “heavenly Jerusalem,” nor for all those who have fled to the “very great valley” between the two “mountains” of Jehovah. Rather, it means a time period that is not divided between daytime and nighttime. Even at the time when the evening darkness is ordinarily due to fall, it will become, not dark, but light. The whole period will be one of light. Thus, whereas the attacking nations experience death-dealing darkness, Jehovah’s faithful worshipers on earth enjoy continuous light of his favor and approval, just as during the ninth plague upon ancient Egypt the Egyptians suffered three days of dense darkness but “for all the sons of Israel there proved to be light in their dwellings.” (Exodus 10:23) In this “day” Jehovah sheds increasing light upon his loyal worshipers by increasing their understanding of his inspired written Word.​—Proverbs 4:18.

39. Why is that a day that specially belongs to Jehovah, and how will it result as respects the universal issue that has been under debate for almost six thousand years?

³⁹ What a gloriously bright day this turns out to be for Jehovah of armies, for the victory with which he crowns it results in the vindication of his universal sovereignty, no portion of all the realm of creation being excepted from his sovereignty, not even this comparatively tiny earth! His already “unreachably high” name attains to new heights of universal fame. (Psalm 148:13; Isaiah 12:4) Eternally associated with His own personal name will be the Hebrew name Har–Magedon, the world situation at which the war of all wars is fought and won, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” By means of his Messianic kingdom in the hands of his heavenly Son, whom He has made to be “King of kings and Lord of lords,” Jehovah of armies gains this superlative victory. (Revelation 16:13-16; 19:11-21) He deserves to have this unique day as belonging to Him, for on it and by it he settles forever in His favor the millenniums-old issue of Universal Sovereignty! The infamous rebel who raised this issue almost six thousand years ago, Satan the Devil, loses. So, after his earthly forces lose at Har–Magedon, he and his demons are abyssed!​—Revelation 20:1-3.

40, 41. After the abyssing of Satan and his demons, what blessings will follow for Jehovah’s worshipers, as foretold in Zechariah 14:8-11?

⁴⁰ What blessings follow, to mankind, during the thousand years during which Satan the Devil and his demons are held prisoners in chains in the abyss! The effects of that victorious “day” are prophetically detailed by the victorious God himself in these words:

⁴¹ “And it must occur in that day that living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. In summer and in winter it will occur. And Jehovah must become king over all the earth. In that day Jehovah will prove to be one, and his name one. The whole land will be changed like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon to the south of Jerusalem; and she must rise and become inhabited in her place, from the gate of Benjamin all the way to the place of the First Gate, all the way to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel all the way to the press vats of the king. And people will certainly inhabit her; and there will occur no more any banning to destruction, and Jerusalem must be inhabited in security.”​—Zechariah 14:8-11.

“LIVING WATERS” FOR ALL MANKIND

42. With relation to earthly Jerusalem, what was the eastern sea and what was the western sea, and what do these two seas picture respectively?

⁴² With relation to earthly Jerusalem, on which the prophetic picture in Zechariah is based, the “eastern sea” would be the Salt Sea or Dead Sea, and the “western sea” would be the Great Sea or Mediterranean Sea. Both of these seas are here used symbolically, evidently symbolic of peoples, as is the case in Revelation 17:15. The Dead Sea is at the lowest spot on earth, 1,291 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and is utterly devoid of fish or plant life. So it would well picture the countless human dead who are in Sheol, Hades, the common grave of mankind. On the other hand, the Mediterranean Sea teems with fish and plant life and at a higher level. So it would well picture the “great crowd” of Jehovah’s worshipers who are associated now with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel and who survive the “great tribulation” with the remnant. (Revelation 7:9-15) Those of that “great crowd” have inherited from our first human parent Adam the sinfulness and imperfections and the condemnation of death. Of these disabilities they need to be relieved, in order to be able to live forever in God’s new system of things.​—Romans 5:12.

43. Those waters flowing east and west compare with the waters seen in what other visions, and so what do such waters picture?

⁴³ Both symbolic seas will need the “living waters” that will go forth, not from earthly Jerusalem in the Middle East, but from the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which is the seat of the Messianic kingdom of Jehovah’s dear Son, Jesus Christ. Those symbolic “living waters” are not just fresh, running waters, quenching thirst, but waters imparting life to those to whom they flow forth. Just as the waters flowing forth from the temple of Ezekiel’s vision imparted cure and life to the Dead Sea, causing it to abound with fish life, so the “living waters” flowing eastward and westward from the “heavenly Jerusalem” will impart life on earth. (Ezekiel 47:1-12) So those “living waters” compare, also, with the “river of water of life” seen by the Christian apostle John in the vision of the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:2 to 22:2) Accordingly they picture all of Jehovah’s provisions through his once sacrificed but now reigning Messiah, Jesus, for all mankind to gain eternal life, as made available during the thousand-year rule of Jesus Christ over the whole earth.​—Revelation 14:1; 20:4-6, 13, 14.

44. (a) What will the waters flowing to the symbolic Dead Sea convey to those thus pictured? (b) What will the waters convey to those pictured by the Mediterranean Sea, and how long will such waters have to be partaken of?

⁴⁴ The “living waters” that flow eastward, evidently through the “very great valley” between the two mountains, down to the Dead Sea convey a resurrection from the dead to an animated, conscious existence here on earth. “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous,” said the apostle Paul. (Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29) The “living waters” that flow westward to the Mediterranean Sea convey, figuratively speaking, release from the condemnation of death and from the sinfulness and imperfections and weaknesses inherited from the sinner Adam. Were mankind to continue in such things, they would die, for only those absolutely perfect will be justified to eternal life on a Paradise earth. Hence the “great crowd” of Jehovah’s loyal worshipers who survive the “great tribulation” with which this system of things ends will need such “living waters.” Likewise, those humans, likened to the Dead Sea, who get a resurrection from the dead will, at the start, be like the “great crowd” of survivors. They will be still in the inherited sinfulness, imperfection, weakness and liability to death. They also will need to keep drinking the “living waters.”

45. The flowing of these waters both “in summer and in winter” will allow for what on the part of the eastern sea and western sea classes, and what will be the final result of this, as pictured in Revelation 20:14?

⁴⁵ “In summer and in winter it will occur.” (Zechariah 14:8) Since those “living waters” will not be affected by any dry, rainless season of the year, they will continue flowing all year round, without any drop in the water level. For the thousand years of Christ’s reign over mankind they will keep flowing, to benefit all the ransomed dead and all those alive on the Paradise earth. In this way all those on earth will be able to continue drinking until they have been cured and restored to flawless, disease-free human perfection, like that of Adam at his perfect creation in the Garden of Eden. When all those of the eastern sea and of the western sea have attained to this glorious estate by loyal obedience to the Messianic kingdom, then will be fulfilled the picture of Revelation 20:14: “And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.” What a blessed provision through the “heavenly Jerusalem”!

46. How is the exaltation of the “heavenly Jerusalem” pictured by what happens to earthly Jerusalem and the land round about, and through what does the heavenly Jerusalem become thus exalted?

⁴⁶ The “heavenly Jerusalem” will then be exalted. It will no longer be like an earthly Jerusalem captured by the attacking nations and pillaged by them and having its population reduced by half of its citizens being taken into exile. (Zechariah 14:1, 2) In her case the prophetic picture must be fulfilled as when the “whole land” round about earthly Jerusalem sank and became like the Arabah, like the Rift Valley through which the Jordan River flows down to the Dead Sea, and, in contrast, the city of Jerusalem rises. True to this picture, the “heavenly Jerusalem” will be exalted as a result of Jehovah’s magnificent victory over the attacking nations and she will become the capital of the heavenly Messianic kingdom. Thus she will tower above the earth over which the Kingdom rules. This Messianic kingdom is thus by far superior to the man-made kingdoms of the Gentile nations on earth. So, then, in becoming subject to this higher government, it will be as if the “whole land” on earth subsided to become like the low Rift Valley, “changed like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon to the south of Jerusalem.”​—Zechariah 14:10.

47. To correspond with the prophecy of Zechariah 14:11, how will the “heavenly Jerusalem” be “inhabited in security”?

⁴⁷ The heavenly capital, “heavenly Jerusalem,” will become like the former earthly Jerusalem with its protective walls and its well-known gates and tower and royal press vats. Upon the “heavenly Jerusalem” there will be no divine curse, no “banning to destruction” because of any unfaithfulness on the part of its inhabitants. (Revelation 22:3; Zechariah 14:11) The heavenly capital will be fully inhabited, fully populated. The entire “congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens” will be there, the complete number of 144,000 spiritual Israelites, united in the heavenly kingdom with the glorified Messiah, Jesus the Son of Jehovah God. (Hebrews 12:22, 23; Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1-4; 20:4-6) As if inside city walls they will dwell in security.

48. What is it that the attacking nations challenge, and what will they learn about it, and with what result for the whole earth?

⁴⁸ The attacking nations of earth challenged the kingdom of the Most High God, his universal sovereignty. But finally they learned that his sovereignty was a reality​—to their own destruction. Instead of their exercising any further devil-controlled kingdom over the earth, the prophecy will be realized: “And Jehovah must become king over all the earth. In that day Jehovah will prove to be one, and his name one.”​—Zechariah 14:9.

JEHOVAH THE KING “ONE, AND HIS NAME ONE”

49. (a) What will their then having one king mean for mankind? (b) In what way will the government be “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,” and under it mankind will live in what state on earth?

⁴⁹ What does that spell out for all mankind but unity, yes, unity throughout the whole earth among all the inhabitants thereof! One King “over all the earth”​—Jehovah, the Universal Sovereign! But, just as King David represented Jehovah when seated on the throne in the earthly Jerusalem, so King David’s Permanent Heir, the Messiah Jesus, will represent Jehovah in the “heavenly Jerusalem” as he reigns for a thousand years over redeemed mankind. Thus it will be “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” under which mankind, the living survivors and the resurrected dead, will have the blessed opportunity to gain everlasting life in human perfection on earth transformed into a paradise surpassing all the lovely parks or gardens on earth today.​—Revelation 11:15.

50. At that time, how will Jehovah “prove to be one”?

⁵⁰ Just as the prophet Moses, away back in the year 1473 B.C.E., said: “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. And you must love Jehovah your God,” so it will be in that “day” so near at hand: “Jehovah will prove to be one.” The reigning Messiah Jesus will uphold and adhere to the worship of that one Most High God, for when he was asked by a Jewish scribe nineteen hundred years ago, “Which commandment is first of all?” Jesus answered: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.’” (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5; Mark 12:28-30) Christendom’s unchristian doctrine of a Trinity of “God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost” will be rejected by all enlightened mankind as being a blasphemous pagan lie.

51. Does any creature share the divine name in an uncombined form, and how is that name written down in the Hebrew Scriptures?

⁵¹ Also, just as Jehovah is One, not a self-contradictory “trinity in unity,” so will his name be one. Nobody in all creation shares that name uncombined.b Just as He said, through his prophet Isaiah: “I am Jehovah. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory, neither my praise to graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8) When the prophet Moses first wrote down that divine name he spelled it by four Hebrew consonantal letters, without vowels, namely, יהוה (YHWH). This four-lettered name-spelling (Tetragrammaton) occurs 6,961 times in the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi.

52. In “that day,” how will Jehovah’s name prove to be “one” as far as pronunciation is concerned?

⁵² Its exact pronunciation is unknown today. For that reason it is pronounced in various ways in English alone; and the way in which other non-Hebrew languages pronounce this Tetragrammaton differs considerably. But in “that day” of Jehovah’s kingdom by Messiah He will reveal the exact pronunciation just as he did to Moses. Then there will be just one pronunciation of that holy name by everybody on earth. This will be realized by the bringing of all mankind back to speaking just one language again.

53. How else, besides uniformity of pronunciation, does Jehovah’s name prove to be “one,” due to its occurrence from one end of the Bible to the other?

⁵³ Besides worldwide uniformity of pronunciation, there is more to the oneness of that sacred name. That name, used so many thousands of times from its first appearance in Genesis 2:4 to its last appearance in the joyful exclamation “Hallelujah!” in Revelation 19:6, is sufficient in itself to be used in all the many connections where God is involved. That one name thus embraces within itself a host of associations that give us a thorough idea of what God is like. That one name needs no substitute; it needs no replacement. It is not true that at the time of the baptism of Jesus in the year 29 C.E. the name of this Son of God became a ‘substitute or a replacement for Jehovah’ and that Jesus is the same as Jehovah and hence the name Jehovah does not need to be used anymore. Or, also, that the nameless title “The LORD” or just “God” can be properly used as a substitute for the identifying name Jehovah. That is deceptive reasoning on the part of the religious clergy of Christendom and of Jewry. Their erroneous reasoning will perish with them. In Jehovah’s coming new theocratic system of things His name will be just one!

SCOURGE AND CONFUSION UPON THE ATTACKING ENEMIES

54, 55. Why does it make one shudder to think of what is prophesied to happen to the eyes and tongues of those attacking the heavenly Jerusalem?

⁵⁴ When the nations of earth make their coming final attack upon the “heavenly Jerusalem,” they will irreligiously scorn Jehovah’s Christian witnesses on earth and their tongues will doubtless abuse and blaspheme that most holy name. But not for long will their tongues wag in their mouths and their eyes look with disdain upon those who are proclaiming the kingdom of the “heavenly Jerusalem.” It makes us shudder to hear what will befall those attackers:

⁵⁵ “And this is what will prove to be the scourge with which Jehovah will scourge all the peoples that will actually do military service against Jerusalem: There will be a rotting away of one’s flesh, while one is standing upon one’s feet; and one’s very eyes will rot away in their sockets, and one’s very tongue will rot away in one’s mouth. And it must occur in that day that confusion from Jehovah will become widespread among them; and they will actually grab hold, each one of the hand of his companion, and his hand will actually come up against the hand of his companion. And Judah itself also will be warring at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about will certainly be gathered, gold and silver and garments in excessive abundance. And this is how the scourge of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the male ass, and every sort of domestic animal that happens to be in those camps, will prove to be, like this scourge.”​—Zechariah 14:12-15.

56. Why could it not be with sincerity that the peoples of Christendom should express shock at the account of that scourge?

⁵⁶ Frightful? Gruesome? Sadistic? Ghoulish? Fiendish? Bible readers in Christendom may express shock at that inspired battle account! But would it not be hypocritical for them to do so? How can they sincerely be shocked, when the so-called “Christian” nations that they so patriotically support now stand prepared to fight the final war with the flaming napalm bombs dropped from airplanes, with liquid fire belched forth from guns, with corrosive chemical gases, with explosives that will blast away a person’s face so that the surviving victim needs to wear a mask and be fed intravenously, with nuclear bombs of such enormous power as to make tens of thousands of human creatures disappear into thin air? How can the supporters of such wartime viciousness find fault with Jehovah of armies? Let them rather be shocked, horrified, at themselves!

57. In reflecting on the severity of the scourge, what is the seriousness of the attack by the nations upon heavenly Jerusalem that we have to take into account?

⁵⁷ As we reflect upon the severity of the “scourge with which Jehovah will scourge all the peoples that will actually do military service against Jerusalem,” we need to bear in mind the seriousness of the action that the peoples and nations are taking. (Zechariah 14:12) In doing military service against the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,” they are striking at the capital organization of the Great Theocrat, the Sovereign of the universe. What brazen impudence could be greater? What defiance could be more extreme, reach to greater heights? What an insult to the highest and greatest Personage in all the realm of existence! Such impudent, defiant, insulting revolters against the universal sovereignty of the Great Theocrat need to learn to know with whom they are dealing. “For our God is also a consuming fire.” “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 12:29; 10:31) It is into his hands that they are plunging when they hurl themselves in godless military service against what Jehovah says is like “my eyeball.”​—Zechariah 2:8.

58. In what way will the spiritual “Judah” be “warring at Jerusalem,” who will be warring alongside of them, and from what will they therefore be spared?

⁵⁸ The strike of the religiously disillusioned nations and peoples will be against that which visibly represents the “heavenly Jerusalem,” namely, the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites “who have been enrolled in the heavens.” (Hebrews 12:22, 23) This is indicated when the prophecy says: “And Judah itself also will be warring at Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 14:14) With this anointed remnant who are warring spiritually for the interests of Jehovah’s theocratic capital city will be the “great crowd” of those individuals out of all nations, tribes and peoples who have taken their stand on the side of Jehovah’s theocratic government. (Revelation 7:9-17) Being warriors in defense of what the “heavenly Jerusalem” stands for, they will be spared from the “scourge with which Jehovah will scourge” all the attackers.

59. Whether applied literally as described, or not, what will be the effect of the scourge upon the attack forces?

⁵⁹ Whether the “scourge” will be literally as described in the prophecy, or not, silenced will be the mouths that are opened to let out terrifying war cries and threats! Tongues have rotted away. Powers of vision will suddenly go black, so that the fierce-eyed attackers can only strike out blindly against the object of their attack. Eyes have rotted away! Muscles and sinews of highly trained, physically developed warriors will lose strength, resilience, moveableness, as they stand on their feet ready for do-or-die action, not while they are lying on the ground as dead corpses. Flesh that clothes their skeletal structure has rotted away! The scourge hits suddenly, also, at the horses, the mules, the camels, the male asses and any other sorts of domestic animals that are in their military camps. Mobile equipment for the attack is helplessly immobilized!​—Zechariah 14:12, 15.

60. What does the widespread confusion cause the attackers to do?

⁶⁰ Terrifying enough​—all this! But adding to the terror of this surprising development is the confusion that the Almighty God stirs up among the would-be attackers. Their unitedness of action against the “heavenly Jerusalem” and the warriors of “Judah” is broken up. Like gladiators with a blinding helmet over their heads in a Roman arena on spectacle before crowds of bloodthirsty circus attenders, they grab hands and strike at one another sightlessly. They have lost the vision of their common goal. Personal interests take the ascendancy. Their evolution theory of “the survival of the fittest” takes over and controls them. The death-dealing confusion becomes widespread, as they engage in mutual slaughter of themselves.​—Zechariah 14:13.

61. (a) What memories are now stirred up of Jehovah’s warring in the past, “in the day of fight”? (b) At whose side will He fight in the coming war?

⁶¹ This is the climax of “that day”! Jehovah has moved into action in order to “war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight.” (Zechariah 14:3) Memories are stirred up of Jehovah’s fight against the horsemen and chariots of the haughty Pharaoh of Egypt at the Red Sea in the days of the prophet Moses! Of Jehovah’s discomfiture of the combined forces of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir on the western shore of the Dead Sea in the days of King Jehoshaphat of Judah (936-911 B.C.E.). Of Jehovah by means of his angel striking dead in one night 185,000 Assyrian soldiers under King Sennacherib who threatened Jerusalem in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah! (Exodus 14:1 to 15:21; 2 Chronicles 20:1-26; 2 Kings 18:13 to 19:36) But impressive as were those fights of Jehovah in days of old, far grander in magnitude will be his fight for his universal sovereignty, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at the approaching world situation called Har–Magedon. (Revelation 16:13-16) There He fights at the right hand of his Messiah, his Son. (Psalm 110:4-6) The recorded preview of the fight says:

62, 63. (a) How does Revelation 17:12-14 describe the fight for victory by Jehovah’s Messiah? (b) What will be most precious and most appreciated as the spoils of victory?

⁶² “And the ten horns that you saw mean ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they do receive authority as kings one hour with the wild beast. These have one thought, and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast. These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those called and chosen and faithful with him will do so.”​—Revelation 17:12-14.

⁶³ Thus the political lords and kings of the earth, although giving their power and authority to the United Nations as an organization for maintaining human sovereignty of all the earth, will suffer defeat at the hands of the once-sacrificed Lamb, Jesus Christ the King, and will be destroyed. (Revelation 19:11-21) Thereby Jehovah’s sovereignty over all the universe, including this earth, will be eternally vindicated. This divine vindication will, in itself, be the most precious spoils of victory. The greatest issue of all times will have been decisively settled to the satisfaction of all who live in heaven and on earth. The interests of the pure, true worship of the one living and true God at his spiritual temple will have been preserved for all time. These priceless things the war survivors on earth will appreciate more than all the material spoils that the slain enemies will leave behind in abundance: “and the wealth of all the nations round about will certainly be gathered, gold and silver and garments in excessive abundance.”​—Zechariah 14:14.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 22

An International Festival in Paradise

1. How will Jehovah’s worshipers on earth be affected at beholding him gain the victory on “that day”?

GLORIOUS in the annals of universal history will be the day when Jehovah’s Theocracy triumphs over all the hostile nations of the earth. Tingling from head to foot with joyful excitement will be all the safeguarded worshipers of Jehovah as they behold this universal Theocrat gain the victory of victories in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon.​—Revelation 16:13-16.

2. (a) To what use will the material goods left behind after that victorious war be put? (b) What dying promise concerning the earth did Jesus make when he was dying a sacrificial death on earth?

² All the material goods that the war survivors will gather after the destruction of their international enemies will be put to use in the service of the God-King Jehovah. No wrecked war equipment will be preserved as relics. (Isaiah 2:2-4) It will be a time for construction, not for destruction. The literal earth will doubtless have suffered from the “military service” of the enemies of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. The selfish ruiners of the earth will themselves have been brought to ruin, but many effects that their ruinous course will have produced down to the end of the final war will still be on hand. (Revelation 11:18) The peace of the thousand years of Messiah’s reign over all mankind now sets in. What more suitable time could there be for restoring earth, for transforming it from a battlefield into a paradise clear to its “four corners.” Before the Messiah as a perfect man on earth died in sacrificial death, he left this dying promise, to renew Paradise on God’s footstool, the earth.

3. What did Jesus say to the dying evildoer who expressed faith in Jesus’ kingship?

³ To the dying evildoer who expressed faith in the kingship of Jesus as a righteous man, saying, “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom,” this prospective King replied: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.”​—Luke 23:39-43.

4. (a) After the Lamb Jesus Christ gains the victory over his beastly enemies, what will it be the time for him to do for the domain of his subjects, and also for that sympathetic evildoer? (b) Therefore, who also should be rewarded with enjoying the Paradise?

⁴ By the fight of the Lamb Jesus Christ against the symbolic “ten horns” of the scarlet-colored wild beast he has come into undisputed possession of the kingdom over all the earth. (Revelation 17:12-14; 19:11-21) It is the due time for beautifying the earthly domain of his subjects like the original Garden of Eden and to bring the long-dead evildoer into it by resurrecting him from the dead. If that evildoer, just for his expression of faith and of sympathy, is to enjoy Paradise under the Messianic kingdom, most certainly the “great crowd” of his loyal disciples who survive the coming “great tribulation” will do so as a loving reward.​—Revelation 7:9-17.

5. (a) What kind of paradise did the attacking nations try to ruin, but what success did they have? (b) Who of the war survivors will enjoy the earthly Paradise continually?

⁵ The restoration of the earthly Paradise will not be the work of a day, but the earthly subjects of the theocratic kingdom of the Christ will have to work in that behalf. But their true, undefiled worship of Jehovah God, in order to flourish, will not have to wait until that restoration of Paradise is complete. Their enjoyment of a spiritual Paradise does not have to be put off until then. (2 Corinthians 12:4) The enemies who were ruining the earth down to the end of the war upon the “heavenly Jerusalem” had tried to ruin the spiritual Paradise of the anointed remnant in their God-given spiritual estate on earth. But they did not succeed in doing so, even with all their persecution and violent opposition. The enemies did not succeed in driving the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” of Jehovah’s worshipers out of that spiritual Paradise. So the spiritual Paradise survived right along with them through the “great tribulation” and into Jehovah’s new system of things. Thereafter when the anointed remnant finish their earthly assignment, they will receive fulfillment of the divine promise in Revelation 2:7. But the “great crowd” will remain on earth and inherit the terrestrial Paradise.​—Psalm 37:11, 37-40; Proverbs 2:21, 22.

6. (a) What is the necessary requirement for a spiritual Paradise on earth, and why will the new system start with it? (b) What historic example do the surviving remnant and “great crowd” have for putting Jehovah’s worship first in the new order?

⁶ A spiritual Paradise is possible only along with the pure Scriptural worship of the one living and true God. The new system of things will start off immediately with that. Why should not the Great Theocrat, the God-King Jehovah, be adored and worshiped for his glorious victory in behalf of his universal sovereignty, which results also in the eternal liberation of his worshipers on earth from the Devil’s untheocratic organization? A precedent for this was set for the survivors of the “great tribulation” by the patriarch Noah. After the global flood had passed, and God told Noah and his family to leave the ark of preservation, Noah at once proceeded to offer up a sacrifice to the God of their salvation. This pleased Jehovah and won for Noah and his family the divine blessing. (Genesis 8:15 to 9:1) This fine example will be followed by the surviving anointed remnant and the “great crowd” of their fellow survivors. With Babylon the Great annihilated and with all her associated opposers of true worship destroyed, the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” will have greater reason than ever to put Jehovah’s worship first in the new order.

7. Those resurrected from the dead on earth will have to bring themselves into harmony with what Paradise, and where will they have to go up for worship in order to gain unfading joy?

⁷ How could it be otherwise than that the spiritual Paradise will flourish with greater beauty and grandeur than ever before? All those of mankind for whom the Messiah died and whom he calls forth from the memorial tombs of the dead will have to bring themselves into harmony with that spiritual Paradise. (John 5:28, 29) They will have to put Jehovah’s worship first in their lives. They will have to accept the Bible truth and to cultivate the fruits of God’s holy spirit. (Galatians 5:22, 23) If they really desire to gain life eternal in the Paradise earth, they will have to come up to the worship of the heavenly Theocrat, the God-King, at his spiritual temple. By doing so, they will enter into boundless joy, never to fade. This divine requirement for such resurrected ones is spoken of in Zechariah’s closing sentences. Those of whom he speaks did not come up to Jehovah’s temple before Jerusalem was attacked. So they do not picture survivors of Har–Magedon. They appear on earth after it by resurrection.

8. What will happen to those who do not go up from Egypt and other nations to worship Jehovah and celebrate the festival of booths?

⁸ “And it must occur that, as regards everyone who is left remaining out of all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem, they must also go up from year to year to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, and to celebrate the festival of the booths. And it must occur that, as regards anyone that does not come up out of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, even upon them no pouring rain will occur. And if the family of Egypt itself does not come up and does not actually enter, upon them also there shall be none. The scourge will occur with which Jehovah scourges the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of the booths. This itself will prove to be the punishment for the sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of the booths.

9. In that day, how will bells on the horses be marked, and what will happen with the bowls and cooking pots in the land, and who will no longer be found in the temple?

⁹ “In that day there will prove to be upon the bells of the horse ‘Holiness belongs to Jehovah!’ And the widemouthed cooking pots in the house of Jehovah must become like the bowls before the altar. And every widemouthed cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah must become something holy belonging to Jehovah of armies, and all those who are sacrificing must come in and take from them and must do boiling in them. And there will no more prove to be a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of armies in that day.”​—Zechariah 14:16-21.

ADVISABILITY FOR NATIONS TO JOIN IN THE FESTIVAL

10. How will Jehovah’s victory over the international attacking forces affect the attitude of the nations that supplied such forces, and why will they not want to risk passive resistance to Him?

¹⁰ We can imagine how, in the prophetic picture, Jehovah’s magnificent victory over the international armies attacking Jerusalem would affect the people back home of those nations that supplied such armies. His victory would painfully demonstrate to them that Jehovah is the only living and true God and that He is invincible. And if He smote their combined armies in the astounding way that He did, what could he not do to them if they kept on showing opposition to him and did not acknowledge him? What would he do to them if they did not go up to Jerusalem and bow down to him as King at his temple? Will he tolerate even their passive resistance? If they were not positively for Him, would it not mean that they were actually against Him? Yes, it means exactly that!

11. Who is the Rainmaker, and what would result to them, if the nations (including Egypt) failed to worship him?

¹¹ Jehovah is the heavenly Rainmaker, concerning whom all people are exhorted: “Make your requests of Jehovah for rain in the time of the spring rain, even of Jehovah who is making the storm clouds, and who gives a downpour of rain to them, to each one vegetation in the field.” (Zechariah 10:1) If those nations who furnished the attack armies did not receive rain, how could they survive? Perpetual drought would produce an ecological condition nationwide that would spell death. Ancient Egypt depended upon the Nile River to irrigate her land regularly. But if Jehovah did not send rain in downpours at the sources of the Nile River, what would happen to their deified river and its annual floods? Yet, even if Egypt and other lands did get along without the moisture from the skies, their neglect to worship the one living and true God would be punished with the deadly scourge that had wrought havoc with their attack armies. There was no dodging of the divine requirement. They must come up to Jerusalem to worship at his temple or die. Their lands would not become part of the earthly Paradise.​—Zechariah 14:17-19.

12. To what annual festival were the nations required to come up, and what special sacrifices were offered during that festival?

¹² Whether Jehovah of armies gained his victory over the attacking nations just before the Jewish festival of the booths (or, tabernacles) in the seventh lunar month, Tishri, is not definitely stated in Zechariah 14:12-15. However, the festival of booths, celebrated on Tishri 15-21 of each year, at Jerusalem, is the one that all the nations are specifically required to celebrate at the temple in Jerusalem. It was most appropriate that to this particular festival all the nations should come up and bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies. At this seven-day festival in Jerusalem there were offered seventy young bulls, beginning with thirteen young bulls on the first day and decreasing the number of them by one each succeeding day down to seven on the seventh day.

13. (a) Why is the number of the young bulls sacrificed significant, and how many benefit from such a sacrifice? (b) To gain everlasting blessings to whom must the nations dedicate themselves?

¹³ Such young bulls appeared to be sacrificed in behalf of all the families of the earth, there being seventy family heads enumerated in the record of Genesis, chapter ten, concerning the spread of earth’s population after the flood of Noah’s day. Seventy is the product of seven times ten; and, since in Scripture both of these numbers represent perfection, completeness, wholeness, spiritually and earthly, the seventy young bulls of the festival of tabernacles or booths would figuratively serve as a sacrifice for all the world of mankind, all nations. (Numbers 29:12-34; Leviticus 23:33-35; Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Exodus 23:16) All nations, without exception, must turn their backs on false gods, on false religion, to which they had formerly ‘dedicated themselves.’ (Hosea 9:10) They must now dedicate themselves to the worship of the God-King Jehovah at his temple. This will result in everlasting blessing to them.​—1 Thessalonians 1:9.

14. At the festival of the booths, to what emotion was expression most fully given, and, by Jehovah’s inviting nations to attend it, what does he indicate to be his will for the nations?

¹⁴ Of all three annual festivals celebrated at Jerusalem, the festival of booths or of ingathering proved to be the most joyous one of all the year. Why should the celebrants not rejoice at the abundant harvest with which their God had blessed them at the close of the agricultural year? So great was the joy at this seven-day festival that it was said that whoever had not seen the joy at the festival of the booths does not know what joy is. The great Rainmaker, who blesses the earth with moisture from heaven, wants all the nations to be joyful. Their worship of Him will be blessed with this overflowing joy. How wise, then, for the nations to accept his invitation to celebrate this festival at his temple!​—Deuteronomy 32:43; Romans 15:10, 11.

15. Why is it that the nations must not go up to an earthly Jerusalem in the Middle East to celebrate a seven-day “feast of the booths”?

¹⁵ Do we catch the significance of this prophetic picture? Not that all the nations must celebrate the literal feast of tabernacles or booths at an earthly Jerusalem annually. The celebration of the festival of tabernacles at Jerusalem in the Middle East ceased in the year 70 of our Common Era. And appropriately so, for since the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus and his ascension to heaven in the year 33 C.E. that literal seven-day festival had ceased to apply, to have value. It was a part of the “law of Moses,” which law had a “shadow of the good things to come.” (Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:16, 17) Those prophetic shadows of the Mosaic law gave place to the realities, when the ascended Messiah Jesus appeared in God’s heavenly presence and applied the value of his sacrificial blood to the validating of the promised “new covenant,” which introduced the Christian realities. So the reality, as foreshadowed by the typical “festival of the booths” or “festival of the ingathering,” is the thing now to celebrate. To it the redeemed ones of all mankind, the living survivors and the resurrected dead nations, must come, under the Messianic kingdom of Jesus, the Son of God.

16. (a) To what Jerusalem will the nations go up for the celebration of the festival? (b) What will befall those who refuse to go up, and what will that mean for them?

¹⁶ To the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,” these earthly celebrators out of all nations, tribes and peoples must approach, by recognizing the heavenly Messianic kingdom. To the earthly courtyard of Jehovah’s spiritual temple they must come, and there they need to “bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies,” the Great Theocrat, the Universal Sovereign. If they refuse to leave their former state of enmity with God and gather in obedience and service at his spiritual temple, they will suffer punishment for wanting to continue in sin. The divine “scourge” will be upon them, and that will signify everlasting death inflicted by Jehovah through his Messianic King, Jesus. There will be upon such no “pouring rain” of blessings. This will mean no share for them in the fruitful, life-sustaining Paradise.​—Zechariah 14:17-19.

THE JOYFUL INTERNATIONAL INGATHERING

17. (a) What does the ancient festival of ingathering picture, and when will it be celebrated? (b) What will descend upon the obedient celebrators, and what pleasures of Paradise will they enjoy?

¹⁷ The ancient festival of the booths, the feast of the ingathering, pictured the gathering of the redeemed ones of all nations, peoples and tribes of mankind to the worship of the King, Jehovah of armies, at his spiritual temple. This will take place during the thousand years’ reign of the King-Priest, Jesus Christ. He will serve as Jehovah’s High Priest like Melchizedek in behalf of all mankind who gather to the spiritual temple of worship. They will have to recognize the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem,” as the capital city of Jehovah’s theocratic organization. Upon these there will be a “pouring rain” of divine blessings. For these worshipers the spiritual Paradise will flourish with all the fruits of God’s holy spirit in their lives. For them, also, the earthly Paradise will bloom all around the globe. It will yield its fruitage in abundance to sustain all of earth’s obedient inhabitants in perfect human life eternally. Reaping the fruitage of earth’s Paradise forever, they will have reason to worship and bless the Provider of the never-ending ingathering to all time in perpetual joy.

18. How does the prophetic picture show that reverential regard will be paid to the true God even in using horses?

¹⁸ What a festival place the paradisaic earth will then be! What an international gathering of Jehovah’s worshipers to the festival of the booths and of ingathering will then take place! Reverential regard will then be given to the holiness that belongs to Jehovah. Worshipful attention will then be paid by all who are favored with the gift of everlasting life. Listen! Do you hear those bells jingling on those horses coming, likely out of Egypt, from which land horses used to be imported? Now they are bringing worshipers to the center of worship for the celebration of the joyous festival of the booths! Why, even those bells are inscribed with the words “Holiness belongs to Jehovah.” And the jingling or tinkling of those bells calls attention to that important fact. The use of the horse is turned to a peaceful, holy purpose, no more to war chariots.

19. (a) The inscription on the horse bells was the same as that engraved where else, and what does this indicate as regards all those proclaiming Jehovah’s holiness? (b) Such awareness of His holiness acts as an incentive to do what?

¹⁹ The inscription on those horse bells is the very same as that engraved upon the golden “shining plate” that was tied by a blue cord to the forefront of the turban of the high priest of Israel. This engraved plate was called “the holy sign of dedication.” (Exodus 28:36-39; 29:6; 39:30) How beautifully this pictures that all the way from the High Priest Jesus Christ in the “heavenly Jerusalem” down to the bearers of the earthly worshipers to Jehovah’s spiritual temple, everything proclaims the holiness of the Most High God! Everything appears to be pervaded with the awareness that Jehovah of armies is God and King. Everything is done joyfully with a view to glorifying, sanctifying, holding sacred his worthy name. How close this draws the worshiper to the God whom he adores! What an influence this exercises toward the worshiper’s living as a credit to his Creator and God, bringing no reproach upon Jehovah!

20, 21. (a) How will the widemouthed cooking pot in Jehovah’s house become like the bowl at the altar? (b) How does this reflect that we shall view or treat every part of our living then?

²⁰ Even the commonplace things of life take on new meaning, new value. Why, “the widemouthed cooking pots in the house of Jehovah must become like the bowls before the altar. And every widemouthed cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah must become something holy belonging to Jehovah of armies, and all those who are sacrificing must come in and take from them and must do boiling in them.” (Zechariah 14:20, 21) Does this mean that, in figurative speech, the cooking pots at the house of Jehovah would thenceforth be made, not of brass or copper, but of gold like the bowls with which the precious blood of the sacrificial victims was caught and from which the blood was tossed against the altar of sacrifice? Possibly! And that would mean that no matter whether the cooking of the sacrificial meat had been rated as not of as high importance and value as the catching of the blood of the sacrificial victim and the tossing of it, now, however, in the new system of things it would be different. Every step in the offering of a communion sacrifice to God and in the sharing of it with Him would be just as precious as every other step in the arrangement.

²¹ It is not the material of which the particular vessel is made that counts; it is the service that it renders, and it is also the importance that is attached to that service. This would signify, then, that every feature of service and of praise to God is important, is necessary, is valuable. Every feature is appreciated by God and is holy to him or is of a sacred quality to Him. How that thought warms the heart of every worshiper of Him! How it stimulates us as worshipers of Him to do everything that we do as part of our worship of Him and as if done directly to Him!​—1 Corinthians 10:31.

22. How might such use of the cooking pots at the temple besides the altar bowls suggest a great increase in the number of worshipers of Jehovah?

²² The prophetic picture could also be suggesting the great increase in the number of worshipers of Jehovah, at his typical temple where they are offering their sacrifices. There would be so many animal victims slaughtered that the bowls for tossing the blood normally at the temple would not be enough in quantity; so there would be need to resort to using the widemouthed cooking pots also to catch the blood and toss it against the altar. (2 Chronicles 29:22) As a result, there would be more flesh of the sacrificial victims to be boiled preparatory to being eaten in the dining halls of the temple. The cooking pots at the house of Jehovah being used extraordinarily now for the sprinkling of the blood on the altar, there would be a shortage of cooking pots at the temple. This would necessitate the appropriating of the common cooking pots of the private homes of the city of Jerusalem in order to do the boiling of the sacrificial flesh at the temple. In this manner those common domestic cooking pots would become “something holy belonging to Jehovah.” They would be sanctified to His service.

23. Notwithstanding what the picture with earthly Jerusalem implies, what about a shortage of priests in the “heavenly Jerusalem” and the means for rendering priestly service to mankind?

²³ Whatever would be the case with the typical Jerusalem as used in the prophetic picture, there will be no shortage of priestly service in the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.” The High Priest Jesus Christ and his full complement of 144,000 underpriests will be up there. They will be fully adequate for the worldwide work of healing obedient mankind from the death-dealing effects of sin and imperfection. There will be no shortage of utensils, as it were. The cleansing, healing blood of the High Priest Jesus Christ as the “Lamb of God” will be ample enough in its redemptive value to avail for all who turn to Jehovah God. Throughout the thousand years of his reign he and his underpriests will minister to mankind’s needs; and so the blessed results of this will be, as stated in Hebrews 7:24, 25: “He because of continuing alive forever has his priesthood without any successors. Consequently he is able also to save completely those who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead for them.” So the tremendous increase of worshipers at Jehovah’s spiritual temple due to resurrection of the dead will not put too great a burden on him.

NO “CANAANITE” TO MAR MILLENNIAL WORSHIP

24. (a) What will the earthly celebrators of the Millennial festival not be molested by at the spiritual temple of Jehovah? (b) What action by Jesus on earth at the temple of Jerusalem proves that he will not tolerate any such molestation?

²⁴ When all those earthly celebrators of the Millennial festival of the booths approach Jehovah’s spiritual temple of worship, they will not be confronted with or be obliged to run the gauntlet of a swarm of traffickers in religious articles, selfishly seeking to make money off those who desire to worship God “with spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) Jehovah’s heavenly High Priest will not stand for this for one moment. When he was on earth as a man in order to offer his perfect human sacrifice as a high priest, he twice cleansed the temple at Jerusalem of religious commercialists, once in the first year of his public ministry and again just four days before his sacrificial death. Concerning this latter case we read:

“And [on his triumphal ride] he entered into Jerusalem, into the temple; and he looked around upon all things, and, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, . . . they came to Jerusalem. There he entered into the temple and started to throw out those selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves; and he would not let anyone carry a utensil through the temple, but he kept teaching and saying: ‘Is it not written, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a cave of robbers.’ And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and they began to seek how to destroy him.”​—Mark 11:11-18; Isaiah 56:7; John 2:12-17.

25. The High Priest will see to it that what part of Zechariah’s prophecy is thus fulfilled?

²⁵ With just as much zeal as ever for the house of God’s worship, the heavenly High Priest Jesus Christ will see to it that the closing words of Zechariah’s prophecy are fulfilled: “And there will no more prove to be a Canaanite [or, tradesman] in the house of Jehovah of armies in that day.”​—Zechariah 14:21.

26. (a) Why does the “Canaanite” have no place at Jehovah’s house of worship? (b) How or with what will the earth then be sanctified?

²⁶ The designation Canaanite was synonymous with “tradesman.” (Proverbs 31:24; Job 41:6; compare Nehemiah 13:15-21.) Such persons, who seek to make selfish, commercial profit out of the most sacred thing on earth, the worship of the one living and true God, have no place in the earthly courtyard of Jehovah’s spiritual temple, nor on the earth His footstool at all. And there will be none such, nor any religious frauds. The teaching of the pure truth and the practice of pure, undefiled religion will then sanctify the earth. Everywhere on earth Jehovah will be known and adored. (Isaiah 11:9) He is holy, and his worshipers in the earth-wide paradise will, like him, be holy.​—1 Peter 1:16.

27. (a) What special privilege will the “great crowd” of tribulation survivors have during the Millennial celebration of the festival? (b) All those devoting themselves to Jehovah’s worship will then gain the right to what?

²⁷ “From year to year” all on earth who drink of the “living waters” that go forth from the “heavenly Jerusalem” will celebrate the Millennial festival of booths with unspeakable joy at Jehovah’s spiritual temple. (Zechariah 14:8, 16) The vision seen in the Bible’s last book of the numberless “great crowd” of worshipers jubilating before God with palm branches in their hands corresponds with the temple scene especially on the last day of the “festival of booths” in ancient Jerusalem. (Revelation 7:9) The “great crowd” of survivors of the “great tribulation” will have a special joy. It will be that of helping the many billions of those resurrected from the grave to go up to the celebration of the festival, without regard to their previous nationality during the former system of things. In that way all those who devote themselves to the worship of the King, Jehovah of armies, will gain the God-given right to a life of endless joy in a paradisaic earth under Jehovah’s Theocracy.

28. To what future scene of God’s accomplished purpose regarding the earth may worshipers of the Divine Ruler lift their eyes of faith?

²⁸ All you worshipers of the Divine Ruler Jehovah, lift your eyes of faith to the future scene that will grace the terrestrial “footstool” of this heavenly Theocrat. See all the earth radiantly blooming with a peaceful Paradise, that delights even the eye of the great Theocrat and Creator, a Paradise adorned with vegetation and trees, both good to look at and also producing food for sustaining creature life in perfection. The divine commission that was given to perfect man and woman at the beginning in Eden has been realized, namely: “Fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” The whole earth to its four corners is filled with godly human creatures in physical, moral and mental perfection, whom the paternal Theocrat is joyful at acknowledging to be his sons and daughters through the Lamb Jesus Christ.

29. To whom will all of Paradise’s inhabitants ascribe their salvation, and how will the inhabitants of heaven respond?

²⁹ It is the close of the last day of the divine week of seven creative days, each seven thousand years in length. As God the Creator examines and sees everything that he has made, look! it is “very good.” (Genesis 1:28 to 2:3) All heaven is watching the perfected earth and listening. The hearts of the heavenly seraphs, cherubs and angels are filled with admiration for the great Theocrat as they see all humans on earth strike a worshipful attitude. Praise to God sounds forth. It thrills the heavenly throngs as they hear the earth’s full population join the “great crowd” in gratefully saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” “Amen,” respond all the holy inhabitants of heaven, “The blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”​—Revelation 7:9-12.